Giant-Slayer
by NeoNazo356
Summary: Because a universe without stories is just empty space, I offer you this one-of-a-kind epic saga about love, life, loss, and everything in-between. In loving memory of Monyreak "Monty" Oum (Born June 22nd, 1981; Died February 1st, 2015). Like so many others, I will keep moving forward, "for there is no futility even in death."
1. In Memoriam

**I'd been sitting on this story idea for a while now, probably since before the season finale of RWBY's Volume 2. I've deeply enjoyed Monty Oum's work on Red vs Blue, RWBY, and more-recently I've watched Haloid and Dead Fantasy. When I learned he got sick from an allergic reaction, I didn't think much of it at the time, I just assumed he would get better, and things would go back to "as usual". But he never did get better, something that saddened many people, myself included.  
**

**It feels like just yesterday I was watching the first RWBY trailer, geeking out over Little Red Riding Hood giving a pack of Beowolves superfluous new assholes with what I _now _know was a sniper rifle; at the time I thought it was a shotgun, go figure. I especially loved in S8 EP3 of Red vs Blue, where Sarge kept saying "shotgun", and then next thing I know the quality of the 3D changes ever-so-slightly, before the Warthog comes crashing through that wall. To know that Monty's light has been snuffed out, well... In light of that I decided to put this story out sooner than planned.  
**

**This one's for Monty, his friends, family, and all the fans he left in his wake.**

**This is also my way of letting go and moving forward. While it is "Time To Say Goodbye", Monty Oum will not be forgotten.**

***GIANT-SLAYER***

It was early dawn, a pale light cast across the land as the sun slowly rose. The sound of ocean waves crashing against white-washed cliffs echoed upward and outward, carrying the smell of brine through the morning air. The wind was blowing, pink-colored blossoms scattered in the wind. The rustling of leaves and the crashing of waves was soon accompanied by the crunching of twigs underfoot as two figures made their way through the forest.

"You know... You could've gone to the funeral," the first figure said. The man was a veritable giant close to seven feet in height with muscles to match, his skin a dark complexion, eyes colored a golden amber. His hair was buzzed short against his head, a second set of rounded ears sitting atop his head, colored back. His attire consisted of a black sleeveless shirt beneath a similar white-colored article with the collar sticking up, black pants with a matching wrap around his waist, the tail ends of his white shirt sticking out the back. To top it off the man had fingerless black gloves on his hands, black boots on his feet, both of which had metal plating.

"No..." the second figure said shaking his head. "I only knew him for a few moments, while everyone that went knew him a lifetime more. It wouldn't have been proper." He was a deal shorter than his partner, 5'9, maybe 5'10", his skin tone the same complexion, with eyes colored a soothing jade. His hair was multi-colored, his bangs white, his shoulder-length hair colored gray with blackened tips; ears like that of his partner sat atop his head, but with the addition of small white streaks along the upper edge. His attire was similar to that of his partner, except the shirt tails didn't stick out of the wrap, and his collar wasn't standing up. Instead of boots he wore open-toed sandals, though still possessed metal guard on his forearms and shins.

"Hm..." the taller of the two hummed. "So..." he paused, wondering how to broach the question. "How did he die exactly?"

"A severe allergic reaction during a routine medical procedure that rendered him comatose," the shorter of the two answered.

"Between the Grimm and the cults, I guess its better he went out sleeping than anything else," the taller of the two said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"_We're _from one of those cults, remember?" the shorter of the two replied curtly.

"Hey, unlike those hood-wearing nutjobs, not _all _of us are genocidal against the other species," the taller of the two defended.

"The public certainly doesn't see it that way," the shorter of the two replied, stuffing a hand into his pocket, the other holding his offering to the deceased. As he said before, he didn't have a lifelong bond with the dearly departed like those that had visited before. In fact he was barely conscious at the time so he couldn't even remember the man's face. The only thing that stuck with him was the name he heard as he was patched back together again. In lieu of flowers, whose meanings he did not know, he decided to leave behind a lotus flower. He didn't really know if it was appropriate or not, but he wanted to leave _something _behind to show his gratitude for the life that had been saved that day, so many years ago.

Even when he had been at his lowest point, wishing nothing but death and destruction upon the Human race, not once did he ever think the man who saved his life to be cut from the same cloth. He never met the man in person after that, and trying to meet him in person would only cause the man trouble. To know he'd never get the chance to even say a simple "Thank you" to the man's face left a sour taste in his mouth.

"Well... we're here," the taller of the two replied as they broke the treeline. Approaching a clearing overlooking the cliffs that was surrounded with a gothic-style fence, the smell of brine in the air slightly intensified, the sound of crashing waves muting all other noise as the two approached. The place they walked into was a family graveyard, a number of tombstones from past generations dotting the small plot of land, some in groups, some alone. The one they headed for was the one where the ground had been most-recently disturbed. The tombstone, like most of the others, featured an engraving with the likeness of a lotus flower carved into it, a number of bouquets from previous visitors resting at its base.

"I'll only be a minute," the shorter of the two said as he walked forward. In hindsight, he should've thrown a cloak or something over his back, but he had been pressed for time, so he didn't have the opportunity to change clothes when this opportunity had presented itself. Dropping down to one knee, he rubbed the back of his hand against moistening eyes, cradling the lotus flower in his hands before setting it down. Placing his hand upon the tombstone, he tried to think of what he could possibly say. The only interaction he had with the man was that his life had been saved by him, but that was pretty much it. Still, if not for his actions, he would've died five years ago, so he had to say _something_.

" . . . For it is in passing that we achieve immortality," he began to speak, the feeling of a hand upon his head as his mind drifted backwards. "Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all... Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee..." he said as his free hand gripped at his shirt above his heart. "I... I'm not the biggest fan of Humans. In fact I could probably count the ones I genuinely care about on one hand alone. Since back then, I've met some really terrible Humans, and that's putting it lightly," he chuckled dryly. Once more his mind drifted backwards, though to a time more recent. He remembered the smell of antiseptic in his nostrils, the incessant **_*beep*beep*beep* _**of hospital equipment in his ear, a pair of frail hands held in his own. "After you saved my life, once I could fight for something that was _real_, I did some terrible things. Okay, a _lot _of terrible things," he amended. "Whether it was out of pity or because of some oath you took, you saved my life, and while you probably aren't all that thrilled about what I've done with the life you saved... I want to do better. I want things to change, even if it isn't all _my _heart that's in it," he said as he rose to his feet. "No matter what happens these next four years, I won't quit, I won't stop moving forward. I'll make the life you saved _mean _something, that's a promise," he said with a small smile on his face as he turned around, and walked away.

Maybe it was a trick of the light, or the salt in the air, but even if only for a brief moment, the snarling beast upon the teen's back looked just a little bit more peaceful.

**Rest in Peace**

**Monyreak "Monty" Oum**

**Age 33**

**June 22, 1981 - February 1, 2015**

**The world is a lesser place without you.**

***GIANT-SLAYER***

**While I intend to stay true to the source material left behind, I also want to take the chance to say that I'll be going against convention on this RWBY story. Yes, I'll be using some of the memes that have been established in the fandom, and yes I'll be sticking somewhat close to the RWBY canon, but since this story and the ideas for the narrative were conceived prior to the "World of Remnant" episodes (first PM was time-stamped May 15, 2014), there will be some things that are different. While I could just as easily change the ideas I already have to match up with the canon instead, I feel like I'd be dishonoring Monty Oum's memory by doing so. Pretentious as some of you might think that is of me to say, if I wasn't willing to go in new directions, to create something new (from what already exists), I feel like I'd be going against the wishes of his friends and family. "**In lieu of flowers or gifts, we ask that you simply do something creative. Use your imagination to make the world a better place in any way that you can.**" That's what they said, and I'm more than happy to comply with those wishes.**

**I want to do something new, something fresh. To make a story where you **_**don't **_**see the plot twists coming a mile away and where the common narrative has been so over-used you can barely distinguish it from other stories, to illustrate the world of Remnant as I see it in **_**my **_**mind from how I **_**think **_**it works on a much grander scale. I don't want to do the same thing in this RWBY story that everyone else does, even if some things **_**do **_**turn out similar. There are probably going to be some things that people don't like, and I'm okay with that. Nobody's forcing you to read it, so if at any time you no longer feel like reading this story, then the Exit button's in the upper right corner, no-one's stopping you. **

**Comments are welcome, as is constructive criticism if you want me to do better. However, Flamers and their hate-fires will not be tolerated. A man **_**died**_**, so show a little decorum why don't ya?**


	2. Can't Trust Anybody Now

After the end of the Faunus Rights Revolution around two decades prior, the White Fang was founded as a symbol of peace and unity between Faunus and Humans, meant to bridge the divide the bloody war had rent. Initially, the organization took to the classical forms of nonviolent protest, ranging from mass rallies to boycotts of organizations that discriminated against Faunus in any way. However, as Humankind continued to discriminate against Faunus, despite all attempts to resolve things peacefully, it became more and more apparent that nonviolent protest would never see the Faunus race treated as equals. It was then that five years prior, a major change in leadership occurred within the White Fang. The first change made was to the flag, the alteration of its visage meant to reflect the organization's more aggresive stance in Faunus/Human politics. As time went on, nonviolent protest soon gave way to organized attacks; firebombing stores that refused to serve Faunus, sabotage of corporate resources, even the murder of high-ranking individuals who were obstacles for Faunus' equal rights.

Of course, the money that went to purchasing the armor and hardware_ used _in those attacks didn't simply come out of thin air. The stories varied radically amongst members, ranging from large-scale money laundering through multiple Kingdoms, massive raids of national treasuries via hidden tunnels, aid from extraterrestrial species that made the moon their home, all the way to black market deals involving artifacts from the Lost World containing great and terrible power. Only those directly involved in the shift of leadership knew the entire story, which had come to be known as The Blood Raid amongst certain circles. The name itself hinted to some bloody conflict that happened prior to the new flag even being _raised_, but the actual details of what occurred were a closely-guarded secret, many sworn into secrecy.

While the truth could potentially rally the entire Faunus race under the White Fang's flag, the fact of the matter was that doing so would almost _guarantee _another war. Prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, the population ratio between Faunus and Humans on Remnant was 1:5, or about 20% of the overall population being Faunus. Post-war, the loss of life increased the divide of the ratio to 1:8, or 12.5%. With that significant drop in number, the Faunus were even _more _of a minority, and to wage another war practically _guaranteed _extinction for their race. And of course while the current White Fang's leadership knew that, so too did the organization that directly opposed them, the Circle of Man. Founded on "old money" as far back as the Great War nearly a century prior, the near-fanatical organization's only goal seemed to be to provoke the Faunus into doing something that would cause the bulk of Remnant to sanction the complete and total genocide of the Faunus race, wiping them off the face of Remnant forever.

You talk to a more moderate and open-minded member of the Faunus race, and they'll tell you that the White Fang's actions are barbaric, that they're a bunch of holier-than-though creeps who use violence to get whatever they want. You talk to a Human about the Circle of Man and they'll reply- "Who?" Because the Circle of Man's influence extended to the three pillars of Human society (government, military, schools), they were able to conceal their involvement within the ongoing conflict between Humans and Faunus. While typically the kind of thing you'd hear from the ravings of a conspiracy theorist, it didn't change the fact there was a shadow war going on behind the scenes. While the White Fang were portrayed by the media as a terrorist organization, whenever the Circle of Man _were _caught on camera, they were written off as misguided extremists who didn't even make up 1% of the Human population.

Those that attempted to expose the truth quickly disappeared, never to be heard from again.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So kid, you remember our mission?" the taller of two figures asked, now wearing a Grimm-inspired mask that covered the entirety of his face, featuring red tribal marks around the eyes, and thin streaks running down the sides of his face. Laying across his lap was a large dark gray-colored chainsaw that was six feet in length, featuring an ergonomic grip near a gun-like trigger, and a fore-grip a third of the way down the blade.

"Yeah, I remember," the shorter of two figures replied, now wearing an angular hockey-like mask featuring bony claws wrapping around his head, three fang-shaped mouth slats, and angular eye holes; running across the face of the mask were three red-painted marks, similar to those on the White Fang's banner. "We're hitting a Circle of Man labor camp outside Mistral's borders where a large number of Faunus are being forced to aid in the construction of something called G.I.A.N.T." he said as he ran a whetstone over the edge of his own weapon, a collapsible axe with hinges at the base and middle of the handle.

Contrary to popular belief, it _was _possible to establish long-term settlements outside the protection that the four Kingdoms offered; the long-standing settlements on the continents of Menagerie and Skyrim were testament to that. The problem was that when the majority of the wandering nomads who tried to establish dominion away from the Kingdoms attempted to do so, they did a very piss poor job of it. The Faunus, who for the longest time both before and after the Great War were nomadic in nature and moved about as the seasons dictated, were veritable experts on the subject, yet no-one ever thought to consult them on it. The biggest mistake they generally tended to make, was putting down roots in piss poor tactical positions with little defensibility. Because man needed water to survive, the first places that Grimm would hunt would be by sources of water, and because Humans tended to put down roots directly by the riverside for the sake of convenience, they made easy targets.

Where the Circle of Man had set down roots was marginally more defensible than that. Situated in an ancient lake bed surrounded by high cliffs, the only way in and out was a winding valley that ran for several hundred feet before opening up to where the main campsite was established. Because of this, any Grimm that wanted to make their way towards the place were forced into a bottleneck before they could reach their prize. Grimm were attracted to negative emotion, something the site was likely to give off in spades; both from the Circle of Man who despised Faunus with an almost religious zeal, and the Faunus who were made to be their prisoners. However, even _they _know that if they stick their snouts into fire, they will be burned.

"I suppose in this case, we should be _happy _most of those hood-wearing nutjobs view us as animals, since "bestiality" is beneath them," the taller of the two said with air quotes as he drew out a map of the area they would be hitting. Situated smack dab in the middle of the site was what command believed to be the objective, marked by a green cross-hair. Surrounding it were numerous black squares representing tents from the most-recent reconnaissance operation, an annotation of the troop estimates set to the side. Towards the back of the camp by the cave entrance were where the Faunus were being kept, marked by a red and blue squares, the men and women kept apart from one another. While the men were the primary work force, the women served as leverage.

"Doesn't change the fact that if you leave a bunch of men alone in the middle of nowhere without any women, they'll do _anything _to get it off. Its only a matter of time before enough of them decide to look the other way, and they give into their baser instinct," the shorter of the two said as he collapsed his weapon. "And those fuckers call _us _animals."

"That's why we're being sent in before a complete investigation has taken place," the taller of the two replied as he set his weapon down in the passenger seat of the vehicle they would be using for that operation. "We'll be the vanguard for this operation, cutting through the valley, before moving onto the main camp. A good portion of their numbers will be out on a hunting excursion by the time we start, so opposition will be minimal at best."

"When you say 'through the valley', do you mean smack dab in front of the anti-Grimm turrets they have pointed in that direction ALL THE FUCKING TIME?!" the shorter of the two demanded. The first half of the valley curved side to side in a zig-zag, but the second half was a straight shot, the perfect bottleneck for whatever tried making its way into the camp.

"That's why we'll have to avoid setting off any of the alarms as we pass through the checkpoints. Those turrets need a short warmup period before they can be used, so if we time it just right, we should be able to drive right into their camp, take out their turrets, and the AA guns, destroy their G.I.A.N.T., get our people out of there, and have you on the next boat out of the country and back to Vale before your first day of school," the taller of the two said as he hopped into the driver's seat.

"I'd say this was the dumbest fucking thing I've ever done for this organization... but it's not," he said as he hung his head. "_That_ honor belongs to the time I was tied to a guided rocket and dragged about a kilometer through a prison complex to a holding cell in the ass end of nowhere," the shorter of the two replied as he hopped into the back. "Just once I'd like there to be a stupid plan where someone's gonna get killed and its not me."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

" . . . Hey," the first guard spoke up.

"Yeah?" the second acknowledged.

"You ever wonder why we're-" However, what the first guard was about to say died on his lips the moment a three-ton mass of rolling reinforced steel burst through the gate they were guarding, the first man being struck head-on. The second tried to roll out of the way but fell short, the vehicle's left tires bucking as the man was run down. The M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, aka "Warthog", was not a vehicle to be taken lightly.

"Yeah! Looks like I've got some blood on my bumper!" the taller White Fang whooped enthusiastically. However, his fist stopped mid-pump as a bloody hand rose up from in front of the hood. The man who had been run over looked half-dead, but was still hauling himself up the front of the vehicle, an assault rifle held in his free hand. Pulling himself onto the hood even as he bled out, he took aim at the vehicle's driver, only for the revving of a smaller engine to draw his attention over the windshield. The color leaving his face at the sight that greeted him, that last thing to go through his mind were the 12.7x99mm armor-piercing slugs that were belched out of the Warthog's M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun (also known as the Vulcan), turning the man into a fine mist on the windshield.

"Focus! We've got two more checkpoints before the turrets!" the shorter White Fang shouted from the back of the ATV.

"I hear ya!" the driver shouted as he swerved left, then right, windshield wipers fighting a losing battle against the red mist and meat-chunks. Coming upon the second checkpoint, the guards there were slightly-more aware, having heard the commotion from Checkpoint 1. The shorter White Fang motioning to the left, the driver mowed down the sentries to that side while the ones on the right were made to eat lead. "If they didn't know we were here before, they sure as hell do now!"

"Just keep driving!" the shorter one shouted as they swerved from side to side once again. Checkpoint 3 was the fallback position for Checkpoints 1 and 2, this one featuring a pair of manned turrets above the gate. The moment the Warthog squealed around the corner, the sentinels were instantly on alert. The Vulcan on the Warthog belching bullets in a line across the upper encampment, stalling the armed response while the driver stood up in his seat and hefted a M41 SSR Rocket Launcher over the windshield. Letting the first rocket fly left, if hit the wall to the side of the gate, the shrapnel from the blast turning the Circle of Man behind it into bloody meat chunks. As the Warthog crashed through the gate, the last thing the other half of the Circle of Man contingent saw was the 102mm High-Explosive Anti-Tank warhead flying right into their laps.

"Three for three!" the driver whooped as he dropped back into his seat.

"The main turrets are in sight!" the one manning the Vulcan said as they turned into the final stretch, a pair of large anti-vehicle turrets flanking each side of the valley's end, and beyond that, the enemy camp. "Prime another rocket!"

"Yeah, about that... I sorta lost it," the driver admitted bashfully.

"What!? You lost it! How on Remnant do you _lose_, A ROCKET LAUNCHER?!" the shorter of the two shrieked hysterically.

"We can still take them out, we just need to be creative about it," the driver reassured as they neared the turrets. As they closed the distance, dozens of men wearing white hooded robes, bearing a red clenched fist enclosed in a circle on their chests, poured out of the camp screaming bloody murder. "Jack, new plan! I'll leave the turret with you while I take the one on the left!" he said driving the Warthog between the right turret and the Circle of Man members, while he himself vaulted out of his seat and bolted towards the left turret.

**Cue Red vs Blue Season 9 OST – Can't Trust Anybody Now**

"Alright assholes!" the now-named Jack shouted as he turned the turret around to face the oncoming hoard of men who threw their pointed hoods completely over their heads, pure unbridled hatred pouring out of the eye-holes in their 'masks'. "EAT LEAD!"

As the Warthog's Vulcan belched eight rounds a second into the frothing hate-crowd, the giant with the chainsaw sprinted towards the remaining turret. While one of the CoM began climbing into the gunner seat and warmed it up, dozens of other robed CoM barred the giant's path, leveling their guns at him and opening fire. With grace and agility bellying his size, the chainsaw-wielding giant actually _dodged _the bullets as they came at him, while batting aside those he couldn't with the flat of his chainsaw. The distance between him and the group closing rapidly, the CoM in possession of melee weapons rushed past their gun-wielding compatriots to intercept, eyes filled with hatred and curses spilling past their lips. The giant clicked his tongue in response before revving the engine on his chainsaw, the bladed chain growling angrily as it whirred into a mad frenzy. Four CoM rushed at him from different angles, but before they could get within striking distance, the giant swung his weapon and bifurcated them all at the waist, the weight and reach of his weapon cleaving them into meat-chunks before they could even reach them.

With an almost religious zeal, the CoM continued to throw themselves at the chain-wielding giant by the dozens, even though his speed, strength, and reach dwarfed theirs. Soon, the lake bed was stained a bloody crimson, the ground around the giant littered with torsos, legs, and limbs in abundance. Splitting the last screaming man in half head to groin, the chainsaw-wielding giant wiped an arm across his forehead before the spooling of an engine caught his ears. Looking up, he saw that the CoM had brought their comrade enough time to get the turret warmed up; and this one was _much _bigger than the one on the back of the Warthog.

"Die you filthy animal!" the CoM at the turret said as he opened fire, belching hundreds of rounds at the White Fang Lieutenant and kicking up a massive cloud of dust. After having fired for a half-minute, the man finally released the triggers, grinning savagely behind his hood as he took aim at the Warthog, the CoM getting nearer and neared to the second turret. "Say goodnight, you filthy animal."

"Funny," a deep voice said from behind, a chill going up the man's spine as he tried to look behind himself. "I was about to say the same thing."

"How-" he was about to ask, before the whirring end of the White Fang Lieutenant's chainsaw exploded through his back and out his chest.

"Fuck you, that's how," the giant said as he heaved his chainsaw over his shoulder and revved the engine, the man split in half stomach to groin and falling to the ground with a loud **_*SPLAT*_**. Gripping his chainsaw with both hands, the tattoos on his arm and the marks on his mask glowed a baleful red as he brought the end of his weapon down into the turret controls, chewing through the metal like a hot knife through butter.

"Damn, these guys just won't give up will they!" Jack swore as he panned his turret side to side, the CoM rushing at him even as they trampled the bodies of their comrades. The barrels of the turret practically bright-red from constant use, Jack pressed the triggers once again to release another volley, only for the mechanism to click. "Empty? Shit!" Jack swore as the CoM rushed at him with even greater fervor, forcing him to abandon the Warthog, which they overturned unnecessarily. Unfurling his axe with a flourish, he spun the blade in his hand, building momentum before swinging at the nearest CoM and separating his head from his shoulders with no resistance. Cleaving off limbs and carving off faces, as the melee-wielding CoM threw themselves against him, the gun-wielding members leveled their weapons at him.

"For the Kingdoms of Man!" the gun-wielding cultists shouted as they opened fire, their bullets even tearing through their own members to get to their intended target. Without enough time to dodge, Jack could only cross his arms in front of himself, the bullets splashing harmlessly away from his body as he flared out his Aura, ripples of baleful crimson flaring as the bullets were intercepted. Slowly stepping backwards, the CoM closed the distance, their single-minded determination to snuff the Faunus' life out leaving them blind to the true threat looming behind them.

**_*WHAM*WHRRRRRRRRR!*_**

"AIEEEGH!" "GUAH!" "AARGH!" "UAAAGH!" and many other such cried echoed through the air as the chainsaw-wielding giant touched down from his jump, carving the CoM into pieces from behind. Limbs, heads, and torsos scattered all around, the growling of the chainsaw's engine died down, the giant wiping a forearm against his forehead as he let the end of his weapon rest on the ground.

**OST END**

"You alright?" the chainsaw-wielding giant asked.

"Yeah... I'm fine," Jack replied as he let his arms fall to his sides. "Lets get the prisoners out of her, destroy G.I.A.N.T., and get the hell out of here. I've got a boat to catch."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The Circle of Man that had tried to bum-rush the two White Fang Lieutenant were all young, foolish, itching for a fight, and stroking their murder-bonders like there was no tomorrow. As they made their way through the camp, robed figures laying in wait would ambush them at every turn, Jack giving them an axe to the face, while the other Lieutenant would snatch them out of the air and snap them in half over his knee. The two of them fought this war for their own reasons. For Jack, it was the callous murder of his mother by Human hands that compelled him. For the chainsaw-wielding giant, the deaths of his wife and son is what compelled him.

_'What I fight for today... that's real,' _Jack told himself as the ears atop his head twitched, catching the slight flutter of a tent flap to his right. _'I WON'T LOSE TO GUYS LIKE THIS!' _he growled as he twirled his axe before driving it through one of the walls of the tent with a **_*CRUNCH*_**. The reddening of the tent wall was all the confirmation he needed that he'd landed a killing blow. "Their numbers are starting to thin out."

"Yeah. Not only will their military strength take a hit from this, but they'll lose a lot of interpersonal influence as well," the chainsaw-wielding giant replied, his eyes narrowing behind his mask. "We're just about there," he said peeking around one of the tents, a pair of large cages in the distance. Looming overhead a couple meters away was a massive scaffold filled with cables, solar panels sticking out the sides, the larger array at the top making it look like a giant sunflower, or maybe a beanstalk. "I see their G.I.A.N.T."

"Prisoners first," Jack huffed. "Once we take care of those last few fuckers, we can take all the time we need," he said turning his attention to the robed men surrounding the cages, four apiece, and all wielding automatic rifles.

"We know you're out there!" one of the cultists shouted. Banging the butt of his rifle against the cage with a loud **_*KLANG*_**, the Faunus held inside flinched away. They were barely anything more than skin and bone, clad in rags and absolutely filthy. If the slave labor or starvation hadn't killed them first, then it was the disease that would send them to the next world. "Come out with your hands up, or we'll kill these filthy animals in their cages!"

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Yeah... that's right... nice and easy..." the lead cultist said as the two Lieutenants stepped out into the open, hands above their heads and weapons discarded. "So, you thought you could just waltz in here, kill our friends, rescue your filthy animal friends, and get away with it did you?"

"We're halfway home already, so yeah," Jack answered with a grin behind his mask, even as the other seven CoM lined up across from the two, three dropping to their knees while the others remained in a standing position. The typical stance of a firing squad waiting for the command to ire.

"Well, you won't _be _going home, and do you wanna know _why_? Its because you were _fated _to lose to us!"

_'Oh great, another of _these _yahoos,' _Jack thought as he rolled his eyes behind his mask.

"This world belongs to Man, and all that lives in it are in our dominion! You abominations of nature who devour our worlds' resources, are the source of _all _conflict!" he preached as he held his arms out wide, a look of manic glee visible from behind his hood. "We, as _Humans_, are God's chosen race, made in his own glorious image. Not _you _filthy creatures who defile our beautiful world. It is WE who will slay the Demons of Grimm. WE, who will give rise to a perfect utopia! IT IS WE, WHO WILL-

_***BANG*SQUELCH!*  
**_

The deranged cultist's long-winded speech was brought to an end as a streak of silver tore through the air from on high, his head bursting like a ripe melon scattering bone and greymatter through the air in a fine red mist. The streak of silver, a sniper round fired from half a mile away, then defied all laws of physics by curving in mid-air and bursting through the chest of one of the cultists in the firing line. With a golf ball-sized hole in the center of his chest, the cultist's legs began to give out from underneath him, but not before the steak of silver curved in mid-air _again_, diving into another cultist's armpit and bursting both of his lungs. The cultists turned their weapons onto the streak as it danced through the air around them, screaming obscenities and firing their rounds wildly into the air as it picked them off one-by-one-by-one-by-one-by-one-by-_one_, each body having a golf ball-sized hole punched through it in new and interesting places.

All of this happened within the span of three seconds, the bodies hitting the ground almost simultaneously.

"Remind me again why she didn't help us out earlier," the chainsaw-wielding giant said as he walked up to the first cage and grabbed the bars.

"Our friend, the sniper, can only do that little trick of hers in short bursts," Jack answered as the bars were ripped clean out, giving plenty of room for the half-dead Faunus to begin filing out. "If she uses it too much, she won't have enough Aura left for herself."

"Yeah, I can understand that," the giant replied as he walked over to the cage holding the women, and ripped two of the bars free. As husbands, wives, mothers, sons, brothers, and sisters were reunited, a pair of black shadows began to descend upon the camp site. The now-liberated prisoners shielded their eyes from the bright sun, the men shielding the women with their weary frames before the two objects came into view.

The vehicles that had just touched down were a pair of Dropship 77-Troop Carriers, abbreviated D77-TC, but more commonly referred to as the Pelican. Used by the Atlesian military for the rapid insertion and extraction of ground troops, it made for the ideal rescue vehicle; Especially after the White Fang's numerous mechanics were able to increase the payload capacity of the "Blood Tray" from 15 to 30. As the rear bay doors opened, a few White Fang stepped out into the light, beckoning the recently-freed Faunus inside. While a few tentatively stepped forward, mainly those whose family members were half-dead where they stood, the rest were largely apprehensive that they were being rescued from a cult by a "terrorist organization".

"There is no need for concern, you will all be extracted from here with no strings attached," Jack said reassuring them. "There's plenty of food and fresh clothes waiting for everyone. Once we get you to safety, you're free to go wherever you choose."

"However, if you want to help prevent tragedies like this from happening to anyone else, then we can give you the training, and the tools, to fight back against guys like _them_," the chainsaw-wielding giant added as he pointed to the corpses. Whether it was by his words or Jack's, most of the apprehension in the freed prisoners' eyes vanished, and in pairs they were all helped into the dropships.

"Well boys, looks like everything went off without a hitch," a female voice said to the two over their earpieces, courtesy of their friendly neighborhood sniper.

"We're not done yet. We still have to destroy _that _fucking thing," the giant said jabbing towards the beanstalk-like construct with his thumb.

"Why am I getting the weirdest sense of deja vu? I've never seen it until today," Jack asked with crossed arms.

"Doesn't matter. Let's chop that thing down, flip over the warthog, and go home," the giant said as he revved the engine on his chainsaw, only for a sudden tremor to shake the ground. "What the fuck was that?"

**Cue Red vs Blue Season 8 OST – Boss Battle  
**

Another tremor shaking the ground, the two's eyes followed a large bundle of cables spilling out of the bottom of the green-colored tower into the mouth of a cave at the base of the nearby cliff. Cracks then began to spread out from the opening of the wall-sphincter, before something suddenly burst out from within, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris. Because they were in a lake bed, there wasn't any wind to blow away the dust, so all they were able to see for the first few seconds was a massive humanoid silhouette, accompanied by more tremors.

Suddenly, a pair of baleful red orbs shone through, the massive form suddenly stepping into the light. Standing at around 15 meters in height, the silhouette was revealed to be a massive human-shaped mecha. Its body appeared to consist of bands of synthetic muscle fibers colored red, white-colored bonding clamps resembling tendons holding it together, giving it the overall appearance of a plus-sized anatomical model. While lacking toes, its hands possessed three fingers and one thumb apiece, its head encapsulated in a featureless skull-like carapace, a pair of red optics glaring at them from within the eye sockets. As it moved, numerous vents along its body released clouds of steam into the air, while the wire from the massive solar array was connected to its stomach like an umbilical cord.

" . . . Get these birds into the air! NOW!" the chainsaw-wielding giant roared at the White Fang grunts as the lumbering Giant made its way over to them. Rushing the last of the people inside, the rear doors closed behind them and the Pelicans began to rise into the air. At the sight, the (what they assumed to be) Giant broke out from a slow gait into a jog, and then a sprint, intent on swatting the troop transports out of the air like flies.

"Fastball Special!" Jack shouted, the back of his collar and waistband grabbed before he was hauled off his feet, spun about with practiced ease before being chucked like a hammer throw. Soaring through the air, the smaller Faunus dove towards the machine's left optic. The machine stopping in its tracks, its crudely-made hand suddenly snatched Jack out of the air, glaring hatefully at the Faunus in its grip before chucking him as hard as it could, the Faunus sent tumbling through a line of tents before coming to a stop, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

Turning its attention back to the two Pelicans whose engines were still spooling up, the Giant began moving forward to smack them out of the air and kill everyone inside, only for something to tug at its body and hold it back. Looking down to the cable plugged into its stomach, it followed the wire and traced it to the larger White Fang Lieutenant, the lines on his mask and arm glowing red as he barred its progress. Calculations ran through its head before it decided the more-practical approach would be to separate itself from its power source in order to complete its primary directive: Kill all Faunus.

Ripping the end of the cable from its stomach free, the two Pelicans had already begun their ascent, and were putting as much distance as they could from the Giant. While it couldn't break into a sprint from standing position, it wouldn't take long to close the gap and complete its primary directive. Its slow gait turning into a jog, because it was working on Automatic instead of Manual, it didn't notice that the Faunus it had chucked before had gotten back into the fight. Not only that, but it failed to notice that the Warthog he was driving through its blind spot was nearing its feet.

Its right foot coming down once more for another step, at that precise moment the Warthog drove under its sole from the side, the Faunus leaping out of the drivers seat at the last possible moment. While the weight of the Warthog couldn't hold a candle to that of the Giant, the vehicle was hardy enough that when the Giant stepped down, like a person stepping on a toy car, their balance was completely undermined. The humanoid mecha's right leg went flying to the left, it toppled over like a felled tree, kicking up a massive cloud of dust as its shoulder impacted the dusty lake bed. Its torso bursting through the cloud as it propped itself up, that one distraction had been all the Pelicans had needed to escape its grasp, and had already flown well beyond its reach.

"You realize that was our ride, right?" the chainsaw-wielding giant said to Jack as the Giant rose to its feet.

"Cayman. I noticed," Jack addressed the now-named Cayman in a flat tone, the Lieutenant shrugging his shoulders as the Giant got back to its feet. _'Without reinforcements, that thing will take_ forever _to put down. We can't just leave it alone, and I doubt it'd let us escape even if we wanted to. There's got to be something around here we can use..._' Mind racing, the younger Lieutenant's eyes raced across the barren lake bed before inspiration finally struck him. "I have an idea! Distract it!"

"What! Distract it how?" Cayman shouted as Jack ran off.

"I don't know, just think of something and do it!"

"Easy for you to say..." the chainsaw-wielder said as the Giant's attention was now focused solely on him. "Okay, no, that's fine. Totally fine, done this before, done this before..." as the Giant began to walk towards him, a hand reaching down to grab him. "A little help would be nice!" he said into his earpiece as he revved his chainsaw, batting its metal palm away with the rotating blades.

"Keep your pants on, I want to hit it dead center."

"That thing has eyes a foot across, just shoot the damn things!" Cayman shouted as he backed away. Another **_*BANG* _**and a ray of silver streaked through the air, hitting the Giant's left eye dead-center. Unfortunately, that was as far as it went, the bullet lodged an inch in. "They bulletproofed its eye?!"

"Its what I'd do if I made a giant killing machine with exposed eyeballs," the sniper replied into his ear.

"Faaan-flippin-tastic," Cayman swore as he leaped into a combat role away from a giant-sized punch that cratered the ground. As Cayman continued to distract the Giant away from his partner, he realized that while the mecha was large, powerful, and resilient-enough to take an armor-piercing round to the eye and not even blink, without a Human pilot, all of its moves were easily telegraphed. Something a combat veteran could take advantage of, reducing its combat effectiveness to that of a petulant child's.

"Hey asshole!" a voice suddenly shouted, the Giant's attention drawn to the base of the solar array, where the smaller White Fang Lieutenant was jumping up and down, waving his arms like a complete jackass. "Over here!" he shouted before throwing something through the air, the Giant too slow to stop another attack on its bad eye, a collapsible tomahawk finding home right next to the sniper round. Now painting the other Faunus as the greater threat, it began to walk straight towards him, hands held out to wrap around him from both sides. "Timber, you overgrown tin can!" the Faunus shouted as he pulled a detonator from his pocket, and pressed the trigger.

Suddenly, numerous small explosions went off along the base of the tower nearest the Giant, and with a loud groaning noise, the structure began to fall towards it. Turning on its feet, instead of dodging to the sides, it instead moved to run in the opposite direction. However, before it could get away from the top half of the falling tower, another silver-colored streak suddenly flew in and attached the joints at its ankles, dropping it to its knees right before the tower collapsed on top of it. A massive cloud of dust kicked up, greater groaning sounds echoed out through the debris as the Giant tried to get up, the weight on its back momentarily leaving the ground.

"Oh no you don't!" Cayman shouted as he ripped the tomahawk out of its left eye before reaching into the skull-like carapace and gripping the sides of its optic. Mask and tattoos glowing red once more, with a mighty heave the older Faunus ripped the optic out of its skull, live wires dancing about and kicking out sparks.

"In your face!" Jack shouted as he threw a package into the open socket. Picking up his tomahawk and running away, with his free hand he held another detonator and pulled the trigger, the package tossed into its open eye socket exploding in a giant fireball. Another groaning of metal sounded out, but this time it was the Giant's body falling dead, half of its head blown clean off.

**OST END**

"Jack... Where did you get those explosives?" was the first thing Cayman asked as the dust settled.

"I crashed through a couple crates of C4 before I got to the Warthog," Jack answered. "Do you have _any _idea how many weapons these guys will leave lying around?"

"I can only imagine," the two's sniper replied over the line. "So, you want me to bring the Falcon around for pickup?"

"Yes, please," Jack replied as he collapsed his tomahawk and synched it to his back, before his legs gave out from under him and he fell onto his back. "Are you seriously going to keep that thing?" he asked, seeing Cayman breathe onto the eye's lens and polish it with a clean rag.

"Souvenir," he replied as though it answered everything. Which it did. "So... this was really your last mission, huh?"

"Eeyup," Jack replied as he pried his mask off his face and tossed it to Cayman, his jade-colored eyes blinking out the sun's light as the UH-144 made its descent towards them. "Hold onto that for me would ya? If things go to shit, I might actually need that back."

"Yeah, well, here's to hoping it doesn't," Cayman sighed as he clipped the mask to his side, he and Jack climbing into the Falcon, which took off once again as soon as they were belted in.

"Hey, the way I see it, I can either help Faunuskind gain equal rights by gaining enough standing as a Huntsmen to actually _change _things, or the White Fang can keep doing what it's doing and get equal rights _their _way," Jack replied as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Either way, I still win."

"I had to pull a lot of strings to let you out. You know that right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya," Jack replied as he scratched at his chest.

"Your scars aching up again?" Cayman asked.

"They never stop," Jack growled angrily, his lips curled into a snarl as his eyes shifted to golden amber and then baleful crimson, the myriad of scars criss-crossing his arms glowing like smoldering embers. "Not. Ever."

***GIANT-SLAYER***

**In true RWBY Fashion, I have started this story off with a "Trailer" of sorts; "Time to Say Goodbye" was more of a Prologue than a Trailer. If I had to give it a "color", I'd go with Jade. Also, in memory of one of the most memorable animated scenes that Monty Oum worked on during the course of Season 8 of Red vs Blue, and by far one of my favorites, I had a Warthog crash through a wall and mow down one while almost doing so to the other. The perfectly functioning gate just off to the side I put there for shits and giggles.**

**The song "Can't Trust Anybody Now" is from Red vs Blue Season 9, not RWBY, but it relates to the OC in question similarly to the songs to the characters in the Red, White, Black, and Yellow trailers. For what reasons will become apparent later on (if they aren't already obvious enough), but I've left a few (blatantly obvious) clue(s) as to who the OC is inspired by in there for those of you that can catch it. As for the Tomahawk and Axe that Jack used, they're the same ones the Insurrectionist Leader used in Red vs Blue season 10 episode 9, about 5 to 6 minutes in. While nowhere near as complex as Ruby's Crescent Rose "foldable frame" technology, it's slightly less static than Jaune's Crocea Mors. Those weapons just always stuck with me, and the fact that this element of Red vs Blue ties so well with RWBY makes me glad I partook in Monty Oum's work.**


	3. Homestead

"Huh..." Jack hummed to himself as he rubbed his face. "I never really _noticed _it all that much when I wore it, but now that its gone, I really miss it," he said as he ran his fingers through his hair. Shoulder-length and predominantly silver in color with black tips, his bangs were a startling shade of white, giving it a monochrome look.

As for the "it" he was referring to, it was the Grimm-like mask he wore during his time as a Lieutanant in the White Fang, one of the youngest right behind Adam Taurus, the "Red Bull". For the past four years, whether it was clasped around his head, or hanging from his hip, it had been a familiar and comforting weight he had kept on his person nearly all the time. Of course, he didn't carry it on him when he was off-duty, since a Faunus carrying _any _kind of mask, White Fang-style or not, was damning evidence unto itself.

Normally when you join the White Fang, its for life, regardless of whether or not you joined prior to the major change in leadership five years back. It wasn't an _actual _rule, more along the lines of an unspoken agreement than anything else. You could ask to be taken off the active duty roster, but you'd still be expected to contribute to the cause whenever the situation called for it. Those that tried to cut their ties entirely by going AWOL (Away WithOut Leave) tended to disappear, though whether it was in the literal or metaphorical sense varied from case-to-case.

Jack's was a special case. Reason One: He'd made numerous contributions to the pursuit of Faunus equal rights during the four years he'd been a member. Reason Two: After the... _situation_, he'd been found in prior to joining up, the higher-ups couldn't in clear-conscience hold him to the organization against his will, due to the hypocrisy of rescuing him from Humans who _had _been holding him against his will. Reason Three: In addition to the backroom exchanges of favors owed to multiple parties, there was also the wetting of many beaks for "processing fees".

It may've been a humongous pain in the ass, like trying to squeeze a license-correction out of the DMV, but it was well worth it. All traces of his prior involvement with the White Fang had been erased, so he couldn't be traced back to them, or vice versa. From the physical evidence of his uniform down to his slot on the global roster, all that remained to tie him to the "terrorist" organization was his Grimm-styled mask. _That _would be kept under lock and key by Cayman until A) he decided to re-join the organization in case his reason for leaving didn't pan out, or B) he decided to shatter the mask underfoot, the common sign of cutting ties to the White Fang for good. Those that knew him personally would eventually catch on to his absence, but to protect the plausible deniability of both parties, the flow of information between the individual and the group had been completely severed. In Layman's terms, Jack was now "out of the loop", meaning he couldn't receive any new information about the organization's going-ons, nor could they receive status updates on what _he _was doing.

"Enough about that," Jack said clapping his hands against his face. "If I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to get cabin fever," he said getting up from the cot he'd been laying on for the past hour or so. Stepping out of his cabin and locking it behind him, he threw a hood over his head as he made his way up the nearest set of steps, the smell of sea air washing against his senses as he came onto the deck of the ship he was now a passenger of.

Like their land-bound brethren, the Creatures of Grimm that made the sea their home also sought to destroy man and all their creations. Because of this, all ships traveling between Kingdoms had to be specially-reinforced in order to make the journey safely. Each Kingdom had their own techniques for repelling sea-bound Grimm in the absence of Hunters, or avoiding them altogether. The ship he was now on, hailing from the continent of Orient to the far east, had its metal hull outfitted with wood in an attempt to "disguise" its presence from the Creatures of Grimm, with large sails to catch the wind in lieu of noisy Dust-powered engines that would alert anything that wanted to destroy the ship to its presence.

Now most would think, "There's no fucking way this will ever work." But on the contrary, this method was actually quite effective, and could make anywhere from two to four transoceanic journeys before the Creatures of Grimm started to take notice. Each Kingdom had their own styles of ship-building, and while the Oriental style came close to being the "magic bullets" for remaining completely anonymous to sea-faring Grimm, it didn't quite make the cut, as after the Grimm _did _start attacking the ship, it would have to be moored and the hull re-outfitted. Most would think with the advent of modern Airships, that _that _would be the preferred means of traveling between Kingdoms, but naval travel was still the tried and true method for those who weren't swimming in money.

_'We've been at sea for two days already. One more and we'll be in Vale,' _Jack thought as they continued onto their final destination. While ships propelled by Dust-powered engines could've made the trip in only _two_, the fact that they'd have to fight off the Grimm attracted to the sound of rotor blades the entire time made such journeys perilous, so the more-sedate three days of a wind-powered ship was safer, albeit more time-consuming. Up until now, the ship had been sailing straight as an arrow, so when its heading changed west to northwest, given he was on a bit of a timetable, this raised some concerns. "Hey you," he said addressing the nearest member of the crew who happened to be a Faunus. "What's going on? I was told it was a straight shot from Mistral to Vale."

"Sorry about that, but another ship crashed up ahead a couple days ago, and Grimm have been swarming it since then. We're going to have to go around them, since we can't fight off a feeding frenzy of Blackfins with only _these _things," he said motioning to the harpoon gun in his hand. Obviously, they were meant to kill sea-faring Grimm without raising too much of a fracas.

"How much longer is this journey going to take then?"

"My guess... an extra day."

"That means we won't be getting there until... late Friday, shit!" he swore under his breath. "Who do I talk to about cargo arrangements? If I'm going to be that late, I'll need to have my stuff moved out of the hold early."

"Passenger's belongings are unloaded in the order that they booked."

"I'm sure I can find a workaround," Jack said rolling his eyes.

There were many dialects spoken across the world of Remnant, but the one language that transcended all borders was cold, hard, cash. And English, but also money exchanged behind closed doors.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

As the sun began to set on the fourth day of the Red Dragon's journey from Mistral to Vale, the largest city in the Kingdom of the same name finally came into view. Vale itself was the largest port town on the continent of Vytal, and the converging point for numerous shipping lanes the world over. The capital city, which shared its name with the eastern Kingdom on the continent, was nestled in the shadow of Beacon Academy; at least when the sun was rising. All the four Kingdoms had their history, but Vale was widely regarded as the starting-point of the modern era, the Era of Color.

During the time commonly referred to as the Dark Ages, where after man had been born from dust and settled into a caste-based monarchy, cultural and scientific advancement had stagnated almost to a grinding halt. The problem was only exacerbated when the ruling families the world over had decided to destroy all works of fictional literature and expressions of art, as they believed such things invited thoughts of rebellion in the colored people. What _started _the destruction of art was the subject of heavy debate, but most historians believed it was when an artist painted not _royalty_, but instead their dream of a governing body consisting of a council that represented the people and their needs.

From there, the inevitable spark erupted into a raging inferno, kindling the Great War, or the War of Color in the common vernacular. At first the conflict was localized to the eastern part of Vytal, but soon the flames of rebellion had spread to all four corners of the world. The monarchies that had once oppressed the people fell like dominos, until almost every royal bloodline had been completely erased. However from the ashes of war, the smallest spark of hope was able to ignite change. The four royal palaces, looted until they were naught but empty shells in the wake of the Great War, were soon filled with the best and brightest from every walk of life, and would go on to become the Academies that would train Huntsmen and Huntresses for generations t come.

_'Finally, I'm here,' _Jack thought to himself as the ship neared the docks. His White Fang uniforms now burned and the ashes scattered, his attire now consisted of black open-toed sandals that wrapped around the tops of his feet and ankles, tan-colored cargo-pants with mini-belts tied around his ankles, and a long-sleeved green hoodie. In addition to this, he also wore brown leather vambraces and greaves, the edges inlaid with green vine-like designs meant to create a sense of tranquility and serenity. _'Time to go,' _he said as he walked onto the deck of the ship, ready to disembark. Until that point, he'd kept his hood up over his ears, so as to not needlessly antagonize any Faunus-hating humans he'd be forced to share the Red Dragon with.

Now however, there was no need to do so, and he bore his animal features with pride, head held high. In general, Faunus were looked down upon by humans and treated with cold indifference at best, second-class citizens or even animals at worst. Of course that didn't mean Humans weren't wary of specific types of Faunus, especially those who bore the traits of some of the more-ferocious animals like tigers, or bears. In Jack's case, he was a Honey Badger Faunus.

The honey badger, one of the smallest of the family of cat-eyed weasels, is an omnivorous animal, its body height reaching anywhere from 60 to 80 centimeters. With a violent disposition, it is the epitome of ferociousness. Even against larger animals such as the lion, buffalo, or even the Creatures of _Grimm _for that matter, it would not flinch and stand its ground. In the Remnant Book of World Records, it was recognized as the number one fearless animal in the world. That is to say, the honey badger is the strongest small mammal on the face of Remnant that is not one of the Creatures of Grimm.

This sentiment was only further validated by how Honey Badgers could rip Vermin and other Grimm within their weight class to shreds.

Faunus by nature tended to reflect the traits of the animals from which their additional features were derived, both physical and non-physical. Because of this, the Honey Badger Faunus was viewed as the most deadly, and feared, of all weasel-based Faunus. While by nature they kept to themselves, they had made a real splash during the Faunus Rights Revolution, turning the tide of many a battle, and uprooting many family trees. Due to the fact that he was the same sub-species as the Faunus Wars' renowned Berserkers, Human and Faunus alike gave Jack a wide berth as he made his way off the boat.

You did _not _want to be trapped in an enclosed space with one of the more-aggressive Faunus breeds, at least compared to ones like the Sheep, or the Mouse, or even the Monkey.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I'm already a day behind schedule, but since I don't know when I'll be back here next, I'll just have to get all my errands out of the way before tomorrow morning," Jack thought to himself as his cargo was wheeled out of the hold, before being set down in front of him. The crate wasn't all that important, only its contents, so taking one of the crowbars used for the removal of cargo, he proceeded to tear the crate to pieces, revealing the contents of the 900+ pound shipping container.

Held within the prison of wood was a M274 ULATV (Ultra-Light All-Terrain Vehicle), more commonly known as the Mongoose, which like the Warthog was also part of the Atlesian military's motorized arsenal. This particular model was a light ground reconnaissance vehicle that seated for two, and was leagues above any four-wheeler available to civilians. It was 10 feet in length, 6 feet wide, 5'9" tall, and weighing just under 900 lbs. With a maximum speed of just around 60 mph and able to go from 0 to 30 in three seconds on anything short of snow-covered ice, it was the ultimate commando hot rod for when you had to venture off the beaten path.

Just a little something he'd picked up a couple years back for his off-hours, the Mongoose's tires had tread the soil of nearly every continent in the time he'd owned it. While it was a pain in the ass to have all the identifying tags scrubbed and new papers drafted after it had been... _reappropriated_, from an Atlesian motor pool, the gain was well worth it. Its color scheme predominantly black with a metallic finish, the license plate on the rear red **BLK-HRSE**. The reason he called it the "Black Horse" instead of the "Black Mongoose" or any other kind of mammal, was because _this _models' Dust-powered ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) was nearly silent, and what noise it _did _make was almost like the breathing of a living creature. Particularly, one of the equine variety, horses being the _original _all-terrain vehicles.

"Hello old friend," Jack greeted as he threw a leg over the mechanical beast of burden. Synching his carry-on luggage to the rear-mounted cage, making sure everything was in place, he ran his fingers through his hair before pulling the helmet that had been hooked to the handlebars over his head. Said helmet was predominantly yellow with blue accents on the back and around the visor, particularly the stylized **S **over the left side. Because of the ear-like vents on the top, it vaguely resembled a cat's head, the special additions meant to give his extra set of ears a little extra breathing room so they wouldn't be painfully pressed against his head. While it pretty much advertised he was a Faunus before anyone even _saw _his animal traits, he didn't really care what others thought all that much.

Also, the helmet had been custom-ordered by a very close friend, and because he didn't have _all that much _in the way of material possession, he treasured the helmet greatly.

"Come on old girl, lets ride," Jack said as he stuck the key into the ignition and revved the engine. The engine humming under the Mongoose's hood, it let out a haunting neigh before it drove out of the port and into Vale's interior. While the sun was beginning to set into the time of twilight, headlights became redundant when you had perfect night vision.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Lets see, I need to say hello to a couple friends, get a book on Grimm, cap off the engine, and I'll be good to go for my last errand," Jack said as he looked down at his fuel gauge. The factory-standard Mongoose had no radio, wasn't equipped with GPS, and didn't have any gauges, so the only piece of equipment more primative was the crate it left the factory in. However, so he could legally drive it in cities, those were some of the little things he had to have installed. "Okay, stop number one should be right around the corner," he said to himself as he reached the border between the Industrial and Commercial districts.

Situated in front of a dark-colored building with its front door at the corner of the street were a pair of men in black suits, red ties, and ruby-red sunlasses on their faces. They were your run-of-the-mill grunts in almost every sense, almost completely indistinguishable from one another aside from the slight difference in facial hair. At the moment hey were just _standing_ there minding their own business, but based on how their gaze was lazily shifting from left to right, they had obviously been on guard duty for a while and were now completely bored out of their skulls.

"Sup guys," Jack greeted lazily as he pulled up to the two, scaring them out of their skins and their hands whipping out the M-9 Tempest SMGs they had at their hips. "Hey, watch where you point those things," Jack said as he parked his ride and threw his leg around the side. "Watch my ride for a minute, I'll be out in five," he said tossing his keys to the guy on the left, helmet tucked under his arm as he walked in like he _owned _the place.

He technically _did_, but it wasn't in complete ownership. You see, after a rival gang torched the place and it needed to be reconstructed in time for the next party season, Jack had been able to buy into the dance club as a part-owner, and was now considered a VIP. Given all of the windows above the first floor had been completely blown out, he wondered just what had happened since he was last in Vale.

"Son of a taint! What the hell happened _here_?" Jack gaped as he made his way through the large sliding doors and saw the state that the Vault of Glass dance club was in. Nearly the entirety of the dance floor was in the process of being replaced, and the pillars, and the lighting arrangements, _and _the banisters that separated the dance floor from the booths against the walls. Judging by how there was a lifeless tree flickering in and out of existence off to the side, someone must've fucked with the hologram projectors for the decor as well. "Geez, this place _reeks_," the Faunus muttered as he pinched his nose.

The entire place _stunk _of Dust Rounds. Specifically, a fifty/fifty blend of Yellow (Explosion) and Red (Fire) Dust. What, did someone take a Tommygun and go nuts while he was gone? Whoeverdid this must've gone to town, because the smell was _everywhere_. Mind you, Jack didn't go around huffing Dust like Humans do with dry-erase markers or paint chips, but when you work with the stuff long enough, you learn to pick up the subtle differences in smell between types and of what grade. He may not've had the nose of a Wolf Faunus, but his sense of smell was _still _sharper than the baseline Human.

"Hey Junior, looks like your boys got a serious ass-kicking. There's barely anyone here," Jack said as he walked up to the bar and sat on one of the stools. One of the only things in the entire dance club that was still _intact_.

"Jack? When'd you get back?" the man behind the counter said turning around.

"Just got off the boat, thought I'd drop by and-holy balls! What happened to your face?" Jack gaped pointing at the man's face.

"Kid, don't ask," Junior groaned, as at the moment he was holding a bag of frozen peas against the left side of his face. The bruising was _very _ripe, an ugly shade of black and blue that made him look like someone hit him with a bus. Or something.

"Is that a frozen steak down your-" Jack said pointing over the counter to Junior's-

"Don't. Ask," the man repeated, eyebrow twitching.

"Alright, alright. Geeze, don't be so sensitive," Jack replied, those very words causing the club owner to cringe. "But seriously, what the hell happened here? I'm willing to pay more into the club, but I'd like to know _what _happened before I start signing any checks."

"We had an... altercation, with one of our customers," the man seemed ashamed to admit.

"Oh, okay then, let me just entitle that memo 'Shit I Already Know'," Jack said rolling his eyes. Whether it was because someone got too fresh on the dance floor, or someone had too much to drink at the bar, and got too fresh, there were bouncers in high-end dance clubs for a reason. "How long 'til this place is up and running again?"

"Few days," the man replied as he regained his composure. "Fortunately, we have a lot of dedicated customers that are willing to wait. Our bottom line will take a bit of a hit this month, but we can usually make a pretty good killing with a re-opening party."

"Well that's good to hear. If my schedule's open, I'll try to drop by," Jack replied. In most business-owners refused to serve Faunus purely out of principle and/or spite. The Vault of Glass however, was different. Hei Xiong aka Junior, chose to serve both Humans and Faunus equally and without discrimination. While it was just as much in the mutual pursuit of profit as it was the acceptance of the Faunus race in general, it was still a step in the right direction, and a breath of fresh air as far as Jack was concerned.

"Jack, you're here!" a familiar voice called out, a pair of arms wrapping around Jack's waist from behind. Had anyone else done that, they would've found a hand wrapped around their head before their face met the floor. However, since those arms belonged to one of the few Humans that Jack genuinely cared for, that was not to be the case.

"Miltia, its great to see you again," Jack said as he hopped out of the seat and returned the gesture. "Looking good as always."

"You too," Miltiades replied. The two had met a couple years back at the Vault of Glass on a night like any other. At the time, Jack had been given extended shore leave because he was overworking himself, and that eventually led him to that very same stool he had been sitting on. Their eyes met, Jack topped off her drink, Miltia thanked him, and the two pretty much hit it off from there. By the end of the night, the two had plans to meet up for breakfast the next morning.

Because of their respective occupations, which were not really conducive towards a steady relationship, they started dating on-and-off for a while in a very casual manner whenever the two were able to meet up. They weren't exactly boyfriend/girlfriend, more like friends-with-benefits, but the two managed to mix a splash of romance into the affair after Jack got comfortable-enough around the red-clad girl. Her twin sister on the other hand wasn't the biggest fan of Jack in the world, but then again most Humans weren't.

"So, aside from all _this_," Jack said motioning to the current state of the club, "anything interesting happen since I was last in town?"

"Apart from this, not really," Miltia replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "No, wait a minute, you can't be here! If my sister catches on that you're back in town, she will-"

"JAAACK BRAAAXTOOON!"

"Too late," the red-clad girl sighed as she slumped her shoulders.

"So... You finally decided to stop running and face me, did you?" the white-clad Malachite twin growled as she stomped her way towards him. "Today, your ass is _mine_, and I _will _have you!"

"Okay, first off, you might want to rephrase the wording of that statement, because it sounded _really _creepy," Jack replied in response to what Melanie had said. "Second, I have two more errands to run, and then a visit to make before the airship I need to catch tomorrow morning. Could we _please _save this for another time?"

"Not after what you did to my little sister! And in _my _room of all places!" Melanie shouted, Miltia's face turning bright red at the very mention of _that _incident.

"In my defense, how was I supposed to know that your room was the red one, and Miltia's was the white one?" Jack asked. The story behind _that _incident was that on Miltia's last birthday, she'd asked something very _personal _of him before he shipped out the next day. They'd been close for a couple of years but hadn't gotten quite _that _far, though there hadn't really been any reason for Jack to _deny _her request. Long story short, they went back to her place, one thing led to another, and Melanie was _not _fond of the state her room was in when she'd walked in on them.

"I had to replace my favorite set of _sheets _because of you!" the white-clad girl shrieked.

"And _theeere _it is," Jack sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, this being the _fifth _time she opened up with those very same lines since that incident occurred. Densifying the Aura around his hand, Jack caught Melanie's bladed heel with his bare hand, before raising his arm and lifting the girl off her remaining foot. "You know... there's a certain sport I excel at."

"And _heeere _it is," Miltia sighed, having heard those very same words before.

"Competitive _bitch _toss!" Jack shouted as he spun on his heel before chucking Melanie out the nearest window that had yet to be repaired. "What?" Jack asked seeing the dumbfounded look on Junior's face. "Did you think I was going to chuck her through an _intact _window?"

" . . . "

"I'm going to go now. Later babe," Jack said giving Miltia a kiss on the cheek before heading out, the red-faced girl waving him off while Junior just sighed and adjusted the steak on his... well you know.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_***Di*ding***_

"Welcome to Tuckson's Book Trade, Home to Every Book Under the Sun. How may I... help... you," said store proprietor greeted before realizing just _who _had walked into the store. "You..." he growled as he raised his hand, claws threatening to spring from his fingers. "What are _you _doing here?"

"Easy there Tuckson, I come in peace," Jack said raising his hands in a placating gesture.

" . . . Sure you do," the store-owner replied before relaxing his stance. "So, you just browsing or what?"

"I have a general idea of what I want," Jack replied as he began to peruse the shelves. While most Faunus' additional features were a little more blatantly obvious, Tuckson's were more subtle in comparison. Because of this, he was able to run a successful business within the confines of a Human-dominated settlement. "You have any field guides on the Creatures of Grimm? I'm going to try getting into Beacon tomorrow, so I'd rather have something more-recent than the out-of-date textbook I'm sure to get saddled with."

"I might have just the thing. Wait here," Tuckson told him as he went off into the back.

_'Huh. Guess he's still pissed about the sushi place and the time I tried to use him as a live decoy,' _Jack thought to himself. As far as he knew, Tuckson had joined the White Fang _prior _to its shift in leadership five years back, so while not necessarily part of its _armed _campaigns for Faunus equal rights, he was still asked from time to time to help out with domestic affairs. Some took it better than others, and given he _had _used the guy as live bait to draw a deranged cultist within killing distance, the animosity towards him was understandable.

"If you're serious about making it as a Huntsmen, this is just the thing," Tuckson said laying a _very_ large leather-bound book on he counter with a small **_*Thud*_**. Inlaid in gold letters were the words **Professor Port's Bestiary of the Creatures of Grimm and Other Creatures Across Remnant that'd Love Nothing More than to Tear You to Pieces** and a golden stamp bearing Beacon's symbol, two axes crossed over a laurel wreath, in the upper left corner. "This guy sounds like he _really _enjoys the sound of his own voice," he said drinking in the long-winded title.

"Probably," Tuckson said with a shrug of his shoulders as Jack flipped through the yellow-faded pages. Every few pages featured a hand-drawn portrayal of a species of Grimm, some of which Jack himself had faced, others he'd only heard of, and even ones whose existence was still being _debated_. Aside from the anatomical sketches, were pages of testimony from real Hunters detailing the projected fighting strength of each kind of Grimm, and how to most-effectively kill them without being torn to sherds in turn.

There was no enemy more terrifying than five miles of uncharted terrain, and knowledge could free you from that fear.

"I'll take it," Jack replied as he took out his wallet. "By the way, is Old Man Wok's place still open at odd hours?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Hundreds of years ago, man would burn things like wood or coal to warm their homes. Then was the discovery of Dust, back then known as "Nature's Wrath", a discovery that would radically change the way the world worked henceforth. Triggered by the Aura of both Humans and Faunus, Dust is a naturally-occurring energy propellant that when first discovered, was only known to exist in four basic forms, aligned with the elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. However, as modern mining techniques allowed man to burrow deeper into the ground beneath them, and in more-isolated regions that were previously untouched, even _more _forms of Dust were discovered, until there there was a form of Dust to go with nearly every color in the spectrum.

There were multiple ways that people chose to utilize Dust. Some chose to utilize it in its natural crystalline form, others would weave it into fabric, and some would even go the extra mile by fusing it into their very bodies. More-modern applications included the creation of Dust-based ammunition, a person only needing to choose the right cartridge for the job, and pull the trigger. Nowadays, Dust had found its way into almost _every _facet of life, from the sink in our kitchen all the way to the airships floating above your head.

**From Dust Till Dawn** was one of the many stores that dealt with Dust. While Dust Stations allowed people to fuel up their vehicles at the pump, the smaller privately-owned vendors were able to provide high-quality wares to people for Dust's domestic applications, and with much better service.

"Hey Old Man Wok. How's the hip?" Jack greeted as he entered the store. Behind Junior, Miltiades, and even Melanie, Wok was he fourth living Human he genuinely _liked_. **From Dust Till Dawn** was one of the few Human-owned stores in Vale that openly served both Humans and Faunus, and while in most cases this would cause a business to go under, Wok had been part of Vale's infrastructure for so long that he'd developed an avid following among Dust-using customers.

Any idiot could run a Dust shop with enough starting capital, but Wok was something special. While the stories surrounding who he was and where he came from went in _every_ which direction, there were a couple stories that his "origin story" had been narrowed down to. One was that he was a scholar who came to Vale in order to catalogue the final days of the Great War. Another was that he was a warrior monk from Orient who got involved in the conflict because the monastary that he called his home had had its sacred texts destroyed. The final, and most-absurd story of them all, was that Wok had been extending his life for centuries with secret Aura-channeling techniques... after teaching man how to first use Dust towards the end of the Dark Ages.

Urban legends could _seriously _spiral out of control.

Anyhow, peeling away all the random bullshit that people would make up because no-one ever thought to just _ask _the guy who he was or where he came from... Old Man Wok was a man who had lived in Vale for a very long time, and was able to build up a successful business from the ground up. While he and Jack weren't on a first-name basis, nor did they ever meet outside the store's four walls, they had a pretty decent working relationship. Jack made **From Dust Till Dawn** his go-to store for all of his Dust-related needs, and Old Man Wok wouldn't butt-fuck him on the price if he ever came up a few Lien short.

_'Now let's see... I need a little Teal (Wind) Dust for fuel, some Blue (Water) Dust for coolant... oh, and a copy of Hunter's Monthly for the kids,' _Jack thought as he perused the shelves. Passing a red-hooded girl in a black dress completely engrossed in a weapon-centric magazine on the way, he collected what he needed before returning to the counter and paying for his wares.

"Come again," Wok said as he waved Jack out.

"I will, have a nice evening," Jack said over his shoulder as he walked out the door, only to be bumped into by some red-headed guy with a cane and a bowler hat. There were also a number of Junior's goons trailing behind him, and he was pretty sure they were packing. "Eh. I'm sure he'll be fine," Jack thought to himself as he lifted up the hood on his Mongoose and swapped out the Dust Cells. Right as he was about to hop back on, one of Junior's goons was suddenly defenestrated through the store's right window, and using him as a landing pad was the red-hooded girl from before. As the rest of Junior's goons filed out, the red-hooded girl suddenly unfurled a large scythe-like weapon that was far larger than herself, twirling it with a flourish before stabbing the end of its blade into the ground in front of her. "So... That's a thing," he hummed to himself as the red-hooded girl, hood now down, proceed to kick the remaining goon's collective posteriors.

"You were worth every cent. Truly you wee," the guy with the bowler hat said as the last guy fell, the sound of sirens approaching in the distance. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around," he said as he raised his cane. "I'm afraid _this_, is where we part ways."

The bottom of his cane popping up to form a crosshair, a Dust-powered flare was suddenly launched at the red-hooded girl, only for her to fire her weapon at the ground and launch herself into the air. When she landed, Roman wasn't there, he had instead made a break for it. After assuring Old Man Wok's safety, she took off after the man as he proceeded to climb up the side of a nearby building.

"Eh, I'll let the police handle it," Jack said as he hopped back onto his ride before driving off into the night. Last thing he needed was to be held in Holding all night because of an Obstruction of Justice charge or some other anti-Faunus bullshit. "Still... That girls looks _eerily _similar to someone I know, I just can't put my thumb on it."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Because of RWBY's popular association with Red vs Blue, due to them both being made by Roosterteeth Productions (who have strong ties with the Halo franchise), I've taken to using vehicles from the Haloverse in this story. I'm an avid fan of Red vs Blue, but not a major fan of Halo itself, mainly because I never played the games when they came out due to lack of XBOX Live accessibility for my console. As such, I'll mainly be using vehicles and weapons, not characters.**

**Anyhow, Jack's personal ride, the Black Horse, is the answer to Yang's Bumblebee. The design of Jack's helmet is a reference to the anime Durarara!, an anime that my brother and I started watching on 2/10/2015. The vibrancy of the characters really stuck with me, especially Celty Sturluson/The Headless Rider. At the moment I'm unsure if I'll make MORE character references for Durarara!, but give it time and who knows?**

**To be clarify, I'm being vague with a few of the story's details (Jack's backstory, what his final errand was, etc.) _intentionally_, as opposed to answering everything about Jack upfront. I can't begin to tell you the number of times I looked through crossovers and _thought _I'd found something great, only for the first chapter to be about the one character's backstory _only_, and nothing else. The stories where those kind of details were revealed piece-by-piece were much more bearable, and flowed better with the narrative.**

**Lastly, we finally get to the big reveal as to what kind of Faunus that Jack actually is, which was fun to write out. For those of you who peruse manga that are not necessarily mainstream, its possible that some of you might recognize part of the narrative from the manga Killing Bites, which features a Hybrid with the DNA of the "Ratel" aka Honey Badger. I'm not sure how many RWBY stories feature non-canon characters who are based on weasels, but at the moment I've been lead to assume that most add-ons tend to be wolves, foxes, or even rabbit-fox varieties. It explicitly states in the manga that certain types of Faunus are more rare than others, so a Honey Badger Faunus existing in Remnant isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility.**

**And no, before anyone asks, Jack Braxton is NOT homosexual, for those of you who immediately associate Honey Badgers with that one YouTube video where the guy who sounds like he's gay is doing the narrative. I had to answer this question on XBOX Live Chat when I was sound boarding story ideas, so yes, the question as to his sexual preference _has _been broached before.  
**


	4. A Shining Beacon

**Just a little heads-up before the chapter starts, is that I re-did Chapter 1. I had a well-known author (who will remain unnamed as per their request) look over my work, and after a little constructive criticism, I decided to cover up a few shortcomings I hadn't noticed were there before. Nothing TOO significant plot-wise has changed, but the narrative was altered slightly.  
**

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter(s).**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"The view really is something from up here," Jack said to himself as the distance between the airship's observation deck and the ground continued to increase. The Terrapin had just left the airport at the edge of Vale and was making its slow ascent into the skies above before making its voyage toward Beacon at the edge of the Kingdom. As the ship rose higher and higher, more and more the buildings began to look like toys, the people like ants. "Airships have really come a long way since five decades back," he added as he looked at the flipper-like fins that undulated in circular motions.

The first airship was nothing more than a basket tied to the underside of a cloth bag filled with hot air, capable of leaving the ground, but completely at the wind's mercy. Once lighter-than-air gasses were applied, the next step was to create enclosed cabins that were directed by Dust-powered fans. A few decades later as scientific progress advanced, and following the complete and utter annihilation of the first zeppelin, a form of gravity-defying Dust was created that allowed today's larger-than-life vessels to leave the ground. Eventually this became the premier means of travel between Kingdoms, both for trade and commerce.

Of course, same as boats traveling by sea, so too were the airships in the skies targets for the Creatures of Grimm. Some would have escorts of smaller, more-agile aircraft in proximity to engage flying Grimm in epic dogfights. The more militant-oriented craft were designed with on-board turrets capable of striking flying Grimm clear out of the sky, if they weren't rendered into a fine red mist first. Of course, same as all living beings, there was a limit to how high the Creatures of Grimm would be willing to pursue airships into the heavens, and while craft capable of going _that _high did not exist as far as people knew, _that _avenue of airship design was still being explored. Upper-atmosphere airships didn't exist yet, but give it another decade or two, and who knows.

"Looks like we're finally on our way," Jack hummed to himself as the Terrapin ceased to ascend, and instead began to move laterally. Due to numerous noise complaints at the advent of airship travel, ships such as this had to ascend vertically for a set altitude until they were allowed to begin moving towards their destination. As the cityscape gave way to churning ocean waves, the Honey Badger Faunus took note of those in the observation deck alongside him. No one paid him any mind, mainly because he had a hood over his head and was able to maintain a degree of anonymity. _'Once we land, the kid gloves come off,' _he thought to himself as his ears twitched ever-so-slightly beneath his hood. There wasn't any point in antagonizing anyone before they even _got _there, was there?

"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister's going to Beacon with me. This is the best day ever!"

"Pleash schtop…"

'_Hm?' _Looking over his shoulder, Jack saw the little red-hooded girl from the other night, currently being hugged to death by a very buxom blonde… who just so happened to smell like the same kind of Dust Rounds that turned the Vault of Glass into a total sty. _'Huh. Small world,' _he thought with a shrug. Eavesdropping was defined as secretly listening in on a conversation, but given the confined space they were in, it was pretty hard to tune them out.

Because he didn't know the two personally, most of what they said went over his head due to lack of necessary context. The only snippet of it he could even _sorta _follow was something about the red-hooded girl wanting to be- "a normal girl with normal knees." -, or something. Their appearances were radically different, so it was hard to believe they were sisters; he wagered they were more like step-siblings with either the same father or same mother. What surprised him the most though, was that the red-hooded girl had been moved head two _years _into Beacon's curriculum. Given she could wield one of the most deadly weapons ever conceived with such proficiency despite her youth, it made a degree of sense.

Moments later, a hologram overlaid one of the windows forming a TV screen, the afternoon news beginning to play. Roman Torchwick, the guy with the bowler hat and flare-shooting cane, was _still _evading arrest, the anchorwoman giving out the obligatory "please contact the Vale police department" spiel that always followed news articles like that. Given Vale was the Kingdom-by-the-same-name's _capital_, you would think that either the police force would be more competent, or criminals would be more hesitant to act because of its proximity to the regional Hunter Academy. Following _that _was a report about how a Faunus Civil Rights protest had "turned dark" when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. What they failed to mention was that the Circle of Man had fired the first shot, and the White Fang had acted in retaliation; that being the last piece of information he was able to acquire from his former network before the supply of information was cut off.

Mid-story, the holographic TV screen gave way to the hologram of a middle-aged woman. Tall, dignified, and admittedly quite beautiful, she carried a certain air of elegance and grace about her, which was doubly-accentuated by the glasses on the bridge of her nose in front of bright green eyes, and her light-blond hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. The hologram stopped mid-shin, but what he could see of her attire was that she wore a white long-sleeved suit exposing part of her chest with puffy sleeves tightening near the wrists before spreading back out. Her lower body was clad in a black business skirt with golden buttons running vertically along the front with lighter black-brown stockings. Thrown over her shoulders was a black mantle with purple inner lining,

"Hello and welcome to Beacon," the holographic representation greeted. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

As the holographic representation disappeared, everyone began scrambling to the windows, scambling to take in the view as Beacon Academy finally came into sight. Situated atop a high cliff with numerous waterfalls spilling over the adjacent cliffs on the left and right, Beacon was a massive citadel-like structure, numerous spires jutting upward. Overlooking the entirety of the school was he main tower, a massive beacon at the top giving off a radiant bright-green light that could be seen even during the day. Beyond the academy's walls by a few miles were mountain ranges that dominated the horizon, natural barriers that stemmed the tide of Grimm to the wilds outside the Kingdom. At the base of the cliffs between the waterfalls were an array of docks where numerous ships moved to and fro. Truly it was a sight to behold in all of its splendor, and while a picture would do the real thing no justice, he snapped a pick with his Scroll to show the little ones at St. Dolittle's the next time he visited.

But of course, like all good things, so too did the splendor of the moment come to an end, as a scrawny blond fish bone of a lad clad in a hoodie and plate armor scrambled past, gurgling behind his hands as he ran through the viewing bay.

'_Eh, the moment was nice while it lasted,' _Jack thought to himself as he watched another exchange between the red-hooded girl and the buxom blond, the latter of which had vomit on her shoes and the prior attempting to run while crying- "Getawayfromme, getawayfromme, getawayfromme!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Apparently the Terrapin couldn't land soon enough, because as soon as it had docked, the skinny kid who had had a really bad case of motion sickness immediately bolted out of the cabin and toward the nearest trashcan, emptying the contents of his stomach. The rest of the would-be students began to pour out as well, paying the poor lad no mind as they emptied out of the ship and into the opulent garden just outside the landing pad, Beacon Academy a short walk away. Jack was the last to leave, never really comfortable with having a large number of people standing behind him.

Too many bad memories of being attacked from behind. No homo.

Feet transitioning from the duracrete landing pad to the cobblestone pathway that led to the campus in the distance, the scent of the flowers in the nearby flowerbeds filled Jack's nostrils. His nose wasn't especially acute when compared to the noses of Wolf and Cat-Type Faunus, so he couldn't get the same enjoyment out of it as them, but after a lifetime of having his nostrils filled with the scent of blood and sinew, it really _did _do him some good to step back and smell the flowers.

Throwing his hood down over his shoulders as he knelt down to further-enjoy the scent of flowers, his ears were suddenly assaulted by a loud girlish squeal from the edge of the landing pad. Once more, his attention was drawn to the red-hooded girl and buxom blond, the prior of which was gushing over the weapons of passerby. Normally he was apathetic towards Humans, but something about the red-hooded girl struck a chord in him, he just couldn't place it.

Balancing the scent of flowers as he leaned against a tree and took in the scenery, for some reason the red-hooded girl unfurled her weapon to full size before _cuddling _it of all things. Like before, most of what they said went over his head, but apparently the red-hooded girl wasn't all that great at making friends, at least outside a small group back at Signal, and she would apparently sooner swoon over weapons than she would another person. More dialogue was exchanged between them, before suddenly four guys came out of nowhere, them and the buxom blond darting off towards Beacon and completely ditching the red-hooded girl. Eyes spinning in her head at the seed of her sister's departure, moments later she flopped backwards onto a passing luggage carrier, scattering white cases around her.

"What on earth are you _doing_?!" the owner of the luggage suddenly shrieked.

"S-Sorry!" the red-hooded girl apologized frantically.

"_Sorry_? Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused?" the white-clad girl proceeded to say.

_'Ugh, a _Schnee_,' _Jack groaned to himself as he caught sight of the symbol on the girl's back. There wasn't a Faunus alive who didn't know who the Schnee family was, none of which were for the right reasons. Sure, the girl in front of him could sing, but her incredibly poor attitude and racist stance towards Faunus took all the joy out of listening to Mirror, Mirror. _'I'm just going to stay out of this one,' _he thought to himself as he stepped into the tree's shadow. A Faunus being blamed and prosecuted for a crime they didn't commit was a tale as old as time itself. As was a _black _guy being blamed and then prosecuted for a crime they didn't commit. The fact that he was a Faunus _and _black meant he was doubly-fucked if he walked within five feet of that- _'White-haired harpy,' _the Faunus teen growled to himself as the Schnee girl continued to lay into the red-hooded girl.

If the words weren't enough, the Schnee girl seemed to be going _very _out of her way in questioning and then belittling the girl's intelligence when it came to Dust and who had refined it. Of course when she took a bottle of Red (Fire) Dust out of her case and began shaking it at the red-hooded girl like a rattle, Jack had to quickly bite back his laughter as she threw small red clouds into the air around her. The tinkling of Dust Motes ringing through the air as the energy propellant interacted with the open air, the red-hooded girl suddenly lout out a loud- "**AT-CHOO!**" **-**, the Dust Cloud between the two detonating with a loud _***KRA-KROOOM!***_, splashing a gout of fire right in the Schnee heiress' face. Crystals of ice and arcs of electricity momentarily dancing within the confines of the Dust Reaction, Jack's eyes followed the parabolic arc of the Dust Vial that was sent tumbling through the air. Though whoever had prepared the Dust had done a piss-poor job of sealing it, he had to admit that at least the Schnee company didn't do anything half-way, seeing that there wasn't a single crack on the Dust vial, even after the explosion.

"Is that..." Jack said to himself as the Dust Vial came to a stop at a girl's feet. "It is," he realized as the girl picked the vial from the ground, finally removing her nose from the book it had been buried in. _'Adam's apprentice? What is_ she _doing here?_' Jack thought to himself as confirmed that the bow-wearing girl was-in-fact, the so-called apprentice to his rival. The girl's skills were great, putting her head and shoulders above the rank and file, but her lack of "affirmative action" on the numerous raids she had participated in had prevented her from being promoted to Lieutenant. Given that comparatively she was still a Private, or "grunt", it seemed highly unlikely that she had been "let go" as he was. _'I_ head _there was some kind of complication during the raid on the transcontinental railway, but I didn't think Blake would resurface so soon after going AWOL,' _he thought to himself. _'On top of that, what're the odds she'd decide to come to Beacon at the same time as me,' _he added to himself, his gaze narrowing as he caught sight of the bow she wore over her ears. "Tch!" he clicked his tongue angrily at the sight.

It was one thing to have _subtle _animal traits that allowed a Faunus to pass themselves off as Human, like Tuckson, but something that had always made his stomach churn was the sight of a self-hating Faunus disguising the features they'd been born with. Whether it was something something small like hiding your Faunus-given features under cloth, or the more _drastic _option that was cosmetic surgery, it didn't matter. Those that went ashamed of themselves and intentionally hid who they were, were lower than the trash that most Humans called them in his book. It would've been an easy matter to dye his hair and hide his ears to avoid prosecution, and his life would've been _infinitely _simpler if he did so, but he _didn't_. He shouldn't have _had _to. He had just as much right to be himself as the rest of the Humans did. The same Humans that accepted same-sex relationships, but turned right around and discriminated against Faunus simply for being born different, were nothing but bloody hypocrites in his opinion.

_'Whatever, I'm not the girl's babysitter,' _Jack growled to himself. There wasn't really any reason to _report _her or anything, one because he was no longer part of the White Fang, and two because he simply didn't _care_. If Blake wanted to hide who she was, that was on her, and he wouldn't go out of his way to help her when her facade fell apart around her ears. _'I give it a week, two tops,' _he added to himself as he peeked out from behind the tree, deciding to see just how things would play out.

If need be, he could always get a good laugh out of it later.

"Hey, I said I was _sorry_, princess," the red-hooded girl snapped back in retaliation to the most-recent laying-into.

"Its heiress, actually," Blake corrected as she walked up to the two. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

"Finally, some recognition," Weiss said haughtily.

"The _same _company infamous for its controversial labor forces, and questionable business partners," she went on to add, a hint of snark making its way into her tone.

"Wha- How dare- Th-The nerve of-" Weiss suddenly started to sputter nonsensibly. "Give me that!" she said before snatching the Dust vial out of the _H__uman _girl's hand and storming off. What's more, she was _still _shaking the Dust Vial in her hands, sending clouds of Dust dancing around her feet as her high heels clacked against the cobblestone walkway.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" the red-hooded girl cried out to the fuming heiress. The next moment, one of her heels must've stomped down _precisely _on top of one of the Dust Motes at her feet, because a _second _cloud of fire was suddenly kicked up. The plume of smoke clearing, the Schnee heiress looked _doubly _furious as she shook the layer of soot off herself, but refused to turn around and instead kept walking.

What Jack found especially funny was how the Schnee heiress tried to play off tightening the cork on the Dust vial that went off in her face. _Twice _for that matter.

_*Sigh* _"I guess I'm not the _only _one having a rough first day," the red-hooded girl sighed dejectedly. "So, what's-" she then said with a positive inflection in her tone as she turned around, only to see Blake having already walked away. Her expression saddening, the young girl dropped to her knees before falling to her back, staring up at the sky as she muttered a weak- _"Welcome to Beacon."_ -to herself._  
_

Normally this would've been the part where Jack walked off, once the novelty wore off. He was no longer genocidal when it came to Humans; _that _sentiment had been kicked out of him during the one year he spent at The Dragon's Tip. Instead he was now apathetic to most of Humankind, same as how _they _were when it came to the Faunus and the discrimination that bore down on them. Watching Humans treat one _another _like dirt was preferable to seeing it be done to a Faunus, but for some reason, seeing the dejected look on the red-hooded girl's face twisted Jack's stomach into knots.

After a couple seconds he finally realized why.

'_She reminds me of…' _However, he shook those dreary thoughts away before he could feel any _more _depressed about what was in front of him. Walking forward until the shadow of his head shaded the girl's eyes from the sun. "Hey there," Jack greeted as the girl's silver eyes met his own calming jade, testing the waters in case the girl at his feet had any kind of Faunus-related phobia. "You look like you could use a friend," he said extending his hand to her, after not seeing any scorn or distrust in her eyes. "I'm Jack."

"I'm Ruby," she replied, a small smile tugging at her lips as she took hold of the extended hand. Pulling herself up, she let out a surprised yelp when Jack beat her to the punch, hauling her to her feet with one arm. _'Whoa,'_ she thought as she took note of his strength, the Faunus boy in front of her having pulled both her _and _the Crescent Rose from the ground with one arm. _'His hands...' _she then thought to herself as she turned them over in her own.

_'Ohhh... kaaay...' _Jack thought to himself slowly as the red-hooded girl continued to turn his hands over in her own, running her thumbs over the backs of his hands, palms, and knuckles. _'What on earth is she thinking about?' _he questioned as he took in the girl's intensely-focused expression.

Combat Schools weren't _only _established to train future Huntsmen and Huntresses, as was the common misconception. In addition to the warriors that would stem the tide against the hordes of Grimm just beyond the Kingdoms' borders, blacksmiths, mechanics, artisans, and tailors alike all received training in the same institution. Blacksmiths refined raw materials into weapon parts, which mechanics would assemble, artisans making the end-results one-of-a-kind, while tailors would clothe others for both form and function. Because their crafts differed so radically, yet were still interlinked, Ruby had seen many _types _of hands during her time at Signal. Blacksmiths had muscular grips from handling tools, mechanics were articulate from fine-tuning mechanisms, artisans had callouses on their fingertips from drafting, while tailors' tended to be "squeaky clean".

_'His hands... they're covered in scars and callouses,' _Ruby hummed to herself as she once again turned his hands over in her own. There were scars criss-crossing the backs of his hands and his knuckles, his grip was firm, and his palm had callouses right beside his fingers. _'This guy definitely knows his way around a weapon. Maybe even moreso than me,' _she thought to herself as she tilted her head, her own hands no longer "squeaky clean" from her training with a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe.

"Um... Can I have my hands back, or are you going to be holding them all day?"

"Ah! S-Sorry!" Ruby apologized as she jumped back slightly. "I just couldn't help but notice your... hands," she paused at the last bit, realizing that may've sounded a bit creepy.

"Hm," the Faunus boy hummed. "You... have nice hair," he said trying to steer the conversation in a different direction, pointing out the red-colored tips of the girl's dark-colored hair.

"Oh, thank you. You have nice hair too," Ruby replied.

"Thanks… I got it from my mother…" Jack replied as he let his hand fall back to his side.

"Hey there," a somewhat-familiar voice said, the two turning to see that the blond-haired kid from before had finally pulled his head out of the trash receptacle. "Room in this group for one more?" he asked nervously.

"Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" Ruby and Jack asked simultaneously, the two exchanging a lighthearted chuckle as the blond-haired kid sighed. _Prooobably _didn't make the best impression. And school hadn't even _started _yet.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

As the party of three made their way towards Beacon, seeing as they were the only ones still on the landing pad, they exchanged names, and eventually settled into light conversation as they headed for the school's interior. Ruby asked what kind of Faunus he was, though not in the way that a person would ask about an animal in the zoo, but more along the lines of a Human that actually saw a Faunus as an equal, instead of an inferior being. Answering that question, Jaune asked why Jack didn't smell like honey, and for that he simply got a blank stare that caused the blond-haired kid to shrink back on himself. Deciding to break the awkwardness, the blond-haired kid then began to defend his earlier actions by saying-

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on."

"Look, I'm sorry, Vomit Boy was just the first thing that came to mind," Ruby apologized.

"Same here," Jack added without an ounce of shame.

"Oh yeah? What if I called you… Crater Face?" he said pointing at Ruby, who looked aghast by the nickname she'd just been given. "And what if I called you _Honey_?" he said turning his attention to Jack, who replied- "I don't swing that way." -, causing Jaune to almost trip in place. "Well the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."

" . . . Do they?" Ruby asked skeptically with a raised brow.

"Th-They will!" Jaune said waving his hands frantically. "Well I- I hope they will. I mean my mom always says- ah, nevermind."

"Heheh… Um… Sooo, I've got this thing," Ruby said unfurling her weapon in order to keep the conversation going, the pointed end biting into the ground causing Jaune to leap back, while Jack simply stepped back to avoid losing a toe to that thing. Seriously, he'd heard of people with zero muzzle awareness, but this was just ridiculous.

"Whoa! Is… that a scythe?" Jaune gaped.

"It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper-rifle," Ruby said with a prideful inflection in her tone.

"A what?" Jaune asked dumbly, Jack palming his face at the question that had just been broached.

"It's also a gun," Ruby said plainly as she pulled back the bolt with a loud _***Cha*Chick***_

"Oh, that's cool!"

"So… What do you got?"

"Uh… I got this sword," Jaune said, drawing a blue-handled longsword with a golden cross-guard, Ruby letting out an- "Oooh." –as she appraised the craftsmanship. "Yeah. Got a shield too," the blond then added with a little more pep in his tone as he put his left hand through a handle on the back of his sheathe and brought it up, transforming it into white heater shield with gold trim.

'_That shield… This guy must be an Arc then,' _Jack mused as he took in the coat of arms, which was two golden crescent-shapes over a field of white. _'Either that or a relative,' _he amended as Ruby patted the shield when she asked what it did. _'I know the Arc family is famous for_ something_, but for the life of me I can't remember-_'

The next moment, the shield suddenly transformed back into its prior state, leaping straight out of the kid's fingers. He repeatedly tried to catch it like a game of hot potato as it transformed back and forth as it bounced repeatedly out of his grasp. After half a minute of fumbling, the shield eventually made its way to the ground, clattering to a stop after the blond-haired kid had failed to catch it.

_' . . . This kid got his hands on some fake transcripts, I just know it,' _Jack then amended after seeing that less-than-inspiring display of skill, his expectations of the kid dropping just a little bit more after the whole "Vomit Boy" thing. Seeing it slip out of his hands _again_ as though it were coated in butter, the Faunus boy went on to add- _'I am _filled _with confidence.'_

Note the sarcasm.

"The shield gets smaller," Jaune said trying to recover from that somewhat embarrassing display. Good thing there weren't other people around. "When I get tired of carrying it, I can just… put it away."

"But… wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby said asking the obvious question.

"Yeah, it does."

"Well…" Ruby said taking over the reins of the conversation so Jaune wouldn't be on the spot anymore. "I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I did go a little overboard in designing it," she said as she gingerly ran her fingers along the shaft.

**Aw yeah baby, work the shaft! Bow chicka bow wow!**

What the- Tucker?! How the hell'd you get into this narrative?

**Pft, I'm like Superman. I know when I'm needed.**

Deadpool's more like it. ALSO! She's _fifteen_!

**Hasn't stopped anyone before. Have you **_**seen **_**half the stuff on this site? Schoolgirls in miniskirts for the win, baby!  
**

Well, if school girls floats your boat.

**Oh, it floats the whole fleet. Bow chicka bow wow!**

Dammit Tucker! I'm trying to build a compelling narrative here, and you're screwing it up.

**I know what **_**I'd **_**like to screw up. Bow chicka bow wow!**

I really hope you're talking about Goodwitch.

**Well, if the sexy school teacher with the riding crop floats your boat.**

Oh, it floats the whole fleet. Bow chicka-DAMMIT!

**So, what **_**else **_**is Little Red Riding Hood going to do with that thing?**

Oh my fucking _god_! If you do not get out of here, this instant, so I can get back to this narrative, I will paint you orange and have Sarge come in here to give you A SHOTGUN COURT-MARTIAL!

**Alright, alright, jeez. Don't be so sensitive.**

GET OUT!

**Okay, fine. Sheesh.**

_Thank_ you.

**I would also like to know about the boats and the seamen.**

DAMMIT CABOOSE!

**Oooh, are we talking about long-**

DONUT!

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Alright… I've finally managed to repair the narrative. Hopefully that won't happen again. Aaand… Action!

_***CLACK***_

"Wait, you _made _that?" Jaune asked in surprise after Ruby gingerly ran her fingers along the shaft.

IN A NON-SEXUAL MANNER!

"Nooo," Jack drawled, the sarcasm in his tome quite palpable by that point. "She went to the local neighborhood arms dealer and pulled it from the shelf where all the _other _High-Caliber Sniper-Scythes are found. Aisle six right next to the elbow grease and headlight fluid."

"Look, if you have something to say, say it to my face," Jaune said turning to the Faunus boy, who was pretty much the same height as him.

"I'm pretty sure I just did," Jack replied as he crossed his arms.

"Anywaaaay…" Ruby said putting herself between them so her new friends wouldn't argue. "Everyone at Signal forges their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?" she asked turning to Jaune.

"It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather use it to fight in the war."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me," Ruby said trying to make a joke, but quickly amended that when she heard Jaune sigh. "Well I like it. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah… the classics," Jaune said sheathing his weapon.

"So… what do _you_ have?" Ruby asked turning to Jack.

" . . . I've got this," the dark-skinned boy said unclipping the weapon from the right side of his belt and unfurled it with a twirl of his fingers.

"An axe?" Jaune postulated.

"_Tomahawk_," Jack corrected, removing the weapon from the _left _side of his belt and unfurling it to full size. _"This _is an axe,_" _he elaborated as he showed off a weapon roughly 1.5x the size of its smaller counterpart. He had attachments on his chest-guard to hold them, but he didn't want to over-dress, so he clipped them to his belt with D-Rings.

"Military surplus?" the red-clad girl asked with a tilt of her head.

"Yeah, but I swapped out the bearings for speed and reinforced the body it for additional strength."

"Do you even know how to use that that thing?" Jaune asked pointing to the tomahawk.

"Do _you_?" Jack asked back as he pointed at the sword.

"Tcha! O-of course I know how to use it!" the blonde replied, maybe a little more strongly than necessary. "What's so hard to understand about swish-swish-stab? It's a freaking sword dude, not a fighter jet."

"For the record, using a tomahawk is _way _different than using an axe."

"Ooh! I wanna see!" Ruby replied, little stars suddenly glittering in her eyes.

" . . . Sure, why not," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders as he folded his axe with a twirl and hooked it back to his side. Looking around and making sure no one was around to see him assault school property, he reared back his right arm before letting the weapon fly with one hand as a testament to his skill. The bladed weapon spun gracefully through the air like a discus, the blade biting deeply into a tree forty feet away with a loud _***THWAK***_

"Well… That's cool... I guess," the blond said trying to downplay the rather impressive throw.

"Thank you. I worked very hard on that trick so I could please random stranger," Jack said in a flat tone. The next moment there was a loud creaking sound, the splintering of wood echoing through the air before the tree that had been struck fell over from where the tomahawk bit in. "Uh… Tucker did it!" Jack shouted pointing to the blond he mis-named before bolting to the tree and retrieving his weapon.

"Jack! Wait! Where's the auditorium!" Ruby cried just before the Faunus disappeared around a corner.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Having made his way to the auditorium without further incident, Jack propped himself against one of the walls in the shadow of a pillar as he waited for things to move along. Having not gone out of his way to approach anyone else aside from Ruby and "Vomit Boy", he took note of his surroundings, as well as the people he might very well have to put up with for the next four years. As he did this, a few of them looked _his _way as well, some of them backing up before whispers were exchanged, his ears beginning to burn. It wasn't like he was famous or anything, in fact he went through a lot of trouble in order to _not _be recognized. However, when your father and his father before him leave a great deal of orphans and widows behind in the wake of the Faunus Wars, and you share a strong family resemblance to them, you tend to have a reputation that precedes you.

Narrowing his eyes and letting a touch of blood lust slip outward, those who were talking about him in hushed tones quickly turned around, having realized the jig was up. Turning his attention back to the stage as the audio equipment hummed to life, he took note as the school's headmaster, Ozpin Greene, took to the mic. Though the man had taken to the stage, everyone was still chatting amongst themselves as though what they were talking about had more bearing than what was going on at that point in time. Raising his cane into the air, Ozpin brought the end down with a loud _***CLACK***_, and at that moment a nearly-invisible ripple swept across the room, silencing everyone in its wake. The moment the wave washed over _him_, Jack knew instinctively that this man was not someone to be trifled with.

"I'll… keep this brief," the man's words echoed over the speakers as he adjusted his glasses on his face. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan on dedicating your life to the protection of the people. However… when I look amongst you, all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose. Direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you, to take the first step."

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins," Glynda announced as Ozpin took his leave, leaving a room of students confused by his words in his wake. "Be ready. You are dismissed."

'_That man…' _Jack thought to himself, the hairs on the back of his neck still standing on end. _'Even if I went all-out against someone like that, he'd probably destroy me in an instant.' _

Jack was proud of his strength, and that pride was not without merit, given all he had survived both before and after he joined the White Fang. Put him up against anyone in the crowd, and he'd probably defeat them quite easily once he went all-out as though his life were on the line. The chance that any of them had "combat training" quite like his were next to zero, and he had the road map of pain that was his body to prove it. However, pit him against a man like Ozpin, who had decades of experience and fought on countless battlefields, then for all his strength, all of his ability, Jack's power would probably be nothing more than a paper tiger before a storm.

'_With men like that walking around, it's a wonder that Grimm are still even a _problem_,' _he thought to himself as he headed off to the ballroom, where his carry-on was most-likely waiting for him.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Dinner that evening had been provided by the school, a simple but nutritional meal that would give all of the would-be applicants ample fuel for what would come the next day. Beacon, like all Hunter Academies, received opulent funding from numerous parties both private and federal, the two that were situated on opposite ends of the continent of Vytal having the most funding because each school received funding from TWO Kingdoms. The Hunter Academies on Boreal to the north, and Orient to the far east, were not any less grand than Beacon, but the number of Airships and other facilities were marginally fewer. Because Beacon was located near the converging point of multiple shipping lanes, in addition to the funding from two Kingdoms, the personnel from all corners of Remnant made it the premier school for those who wished to become Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Of course by that same logic, while they provided the best facilities, the best teachers, and the best training, Beacon also expected the best of its students. As a consequence, Beacon had one of the highest dropout rates for those who couldn't make the grade. However, those that dropped out were overshadowed by those that _did not_, because they often went on to become the best of the best the world-over, capable of venturing out into the frontier and returning mostly unscathed for a number of decades before disappearing. Some would become humble teachers under different names, others would become nomads, and some would simply never be heard from again.

For the sake of morale, Hunters that were not _confirmed _to have died in action were considered MIA. It made the brave men and women who fought an unending war against the Creatures of Grimm seem a little more invincible. That the war would eventually be won. Right now, things were at a standstill, but if the stigma against Faunus ever came to an end, its feasible that Grimm could eventually be driven to extinction.

After the Faunus Rights Revolution, the continent of Menagerie had been given to the Faunus race as a _concession _to avoid future violence, widely considered the spoils of war instead of the prison it was originally intended to be. While he could've just as easily gone to the Hunter Academy _there_ and receive formally-recognized training, Jack decided to go to Beacon to prove he was just as good as his Human peers, if not better. Also, while Menagerie had a governing council to represent the people and their needs, same as the other Four Kingdoms, they lacked the resources and history to be formally recognized as an independent nation. This was part of the reason why Faunus had yet to be recognized as "equals" to Humankind, due to the Faunus having a long-standing history similar to those of the Gypsies. Nomads who did not possess a home nation to call their own, moving and working as the seasons dictated.

'_The White Fang has been around since the end of the war around two decades ago, becoming militant five years back. Beacon is a four-year school and there is always going to be a need for Huntsmen and Huntresses. In all likelihood, Faunus _still _won't have equal rights by the time I graduate,'_ Jack thought to himself as he leaned against the far corner of the ballroom that he and the other initiates were making their home for the evening. While there was no _official _channels of segregation between Humans and Faunus, Faunus were still considered second-class citizens by the majority of the other Kingdoms because they did not have any representation in global affairs. However, if enough Faunus assumed positions of authority within Human-dominated occupations, Hunters being the most widely-recognized, then maybe, just maybe, Jack would see equal rights for Faunus within his own lifetime.

Either that, or the White Fang kept doing what they were doing and got equal rights through violence. People always preach about how "violence is not the answer", but they were so quick to forget that same violence they refuted, had been the only thing to preserve art and all forms of self-expression in the wake of the Great War. Using words to resolve disputes was a nice sentiment, at least when it _worked,_ but when it did not, violence proved to be the time-true answer for everything.

Like the "shotgun court-martial", which was supposedly and excellent cure for insubordination.

"_Look at them. Most of these kids don't even _act _like they could very well die tomorrow," _Jack whispered to himself as he scanned the room, keeping an eye out for anyone in particular who might be an obstacle for him. The normal age of admittance into Hunter Academies was 17, and an unspoken prerequisite was 4 years at an accredited Combat School prior which most started by the time they were 13; not including the family-given training in their childhood prior. While Jack had _not _gone to such a school, it was not unheard of for someone to enter a Hunter Academy without any form of formally-recognized training, because in all likelihood they had been trained by their parents in what they _would _have to know. Primarily, how to fight, and how to survive.

Jack had experience in both doctrines in spades. As a child he was meek and _hated _violence in any capacity. However, fate had different plans for him, and while nine years later he still loathed senseless violence for the sake of being violent, he was more than willing to fight in order to survive. Experience that most of these kids probably didn't even have, coddled in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.

Would he still be as strong as he were now if he had a "normal" childhood? Hell no! In fact he'd probably be as weak as Vomit Boy if he _hadn't_ been ripped from his mother's arms at the tender age of nine. Did he enjoy the power he now possessed? He didn't really have a _choice_ in the matter. The main reason he only let a small handful of Humans get close to him? You let someone get that close, they only need a shorter knife.

It was a lonely life, but he wasn't an idealist. His father and _his _father before him had uprooted a lot of family trees during the Faunus Rights Revolution. It was either fight, or be confined to a small continent whose name _literally _meant "a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition." They chose to fight, and by simply existing, he carried that same stigma with him wherever he went. It wasn't uncommon for Faunus war veterans to be hunted down and lynched because of what they did, while Humans who did pretty much the same thing acted like they were completely free of guilt. Because Humans outnumbered Faunus seven to one after the war, they couldn't very well afford the manpower it'd take to hunt down whatever Humans had made "names" for themselves in the war, so they decided to let sleeping dogs lie, but never bury the hatchet.

Before he could walk further down that depressing line of thought, his attention was once again drawn to Ruby, and by extension her sister. Would he mind being on the same Team as her for the next four years?

. . .

In actuality that sounded pretty nice, but with his shit luck that was probably never going to happen.

The only reason he skipped out on the younger red-head, aside from not getting busted for knocking one of the trees down by accident, was because this wasn't the _first _time he'd tried to be friendly with a Human. In pretty much all those cases, he was stabbed in the back; sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally. Either way, while Ruby seemed like a good kid, he'd take things slow for the time being. Easier to see any potential betrayals coming if he kept his wits about him instead of overextending his reach. He didn't want to think such a nice, goofy, gun-nut of a girl could be capable of something like that, but looks were deceiving. He'd let appearances fool him before, and he wasn't fond of letting it happen again.

_'If I ever see that ice cream bitch again, I'll_ kill _her,_' he thought to himself, before casting that _particular _memory to the back of his mind.

"It's like a biiig slumber party!" Yang, who he knew only through reputation after what Ruby told him, said as she flopped down sideways onto her sleeping bag. At the moment she was wearing an orange tank top with a red flaming heart emblem on the front, and brown boy shorts. While she was at least a D-Cup, she also had a great deal of muscle tone, but not enough that it whittled away her feminine curves.

"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though," Ruby replied plainly as she wrote something down in her notebook. Her present attire consisted of a black tank top with a pink heart-shaped Beowolf design on the chest, and white long pants with pink rose decorations, a sleeping mask perched on her forehead. Hers was a leaner build than her sister, around a C-Cup, her build more-inclined towards running than fighting hand-to-hand.

"I know _I _do. _Rowrr_…" the blond-haired girl purred as she looked across from her. Jack following her gaze, he saw three shirtless guys with strong physiques, whom were currently the object of Yang's ogling. The first one who was flexing his muscles had lightly tanned skin, bushy dark brown hair, and green-colored pants. A little ways away was a guy with light brown skin and short-buzzed hair, wearing a pair of blue duck-patterned pants, and was currently giving another guy a headlock. Being _given _the headlock was a guy with pale skin, dark blue hair that fell flat on his head, wearing red pants with pink hearts on them. A moment later Jaune walked by, Yang's approving look quickly vanishing at his choice of attire; a baby blue bunny slipper-footed onesie.

'_Does that guy have no self-respect?' _Jack wondered as he compared the boy's pajamas to his own. There was none. Barefoot like pretty much everyone else, he wore gray-scale camouflage sleep pants, and a light gray shirt with the words **IT'S ALSO A GUN **across his chest with a downward-pointing arrow just above the waistline; it was short-sleeved, revealing the numerous scars criss-crossing his arms. He'd originally gotten it as a joke, but the bit of humor was actually pretty popular in the White Fang barracks. Or rather, it was popular among the ladies, so he continued using it.

Raids against robot-laden facilities were often pretty stressful, and in the aftermath when they were confronted with their mortality, a number of ladies both around and above his age group had gotten curious as to what "caliber" he was packing. Four years of his life, he'd spent in the closest thing he could probably experience to hell while still alive, wading through blood one fight after another. After that, he'd spent a year up north at the ass end of the world where the only people for miles were the old guru he trained under so he could get his head screwed on straight again, and the chick who seemed to get off kicking him around in sparing matches. Given the latter happened during the most-awkward stages of puberty, and well... You could understand why it was hard for him to resist a more... _feminine_ touch. Miltia certainly didn't seem to mind his abundance of "experience" in that field, but a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.

Amongst other things.

"A letter to the gang back at Signal," Ruby said answering a question from Yang that Jack hadn't caught in his musings. "I promised to tell them all about Beacon, and how things are going."

"Aw, that's so cuuute~"

"Shut up!" Ruby snapped back as she beaned her sister with pillow. "I didn't get to take my friends with me to school. It's weird not knowing anyone here."

"What about those two guys you met?" Yang asked. "Jaune seems… nice," she said struggling to find a complimentary word for the skinny blond. "And I think I saw this Jack guy you were talking about earlier," she hummed, surprising Jack with how _she _saw him, while no one else (especially Blake), had taken any kind of notice of him. "There you go, plus two friends. That's a two-hundred percent increase."

"I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend," Ruby said rolling onto her back.

"There's no such thing as negative friends. You just made two friends, and one enemy," she replied, before being beaned with a round puppy-themed pillow. "Look, it's only been one day. Trust me, you've got friends all around you. You just haven't met them yet."

A moment later the sound of a match being lit met his ears, three globes of light emanating from the candelabra right next to Blake who sat against the wall to his right. Her attire consisted of a black yukata, with gray and white as secondary and tertiary colors. She too was a C-Cup, a little larger than Ruby, with a lithe build that, unironically, was like that of a cat, flexible and agile.

"That girl…"

"You know her?"

"Not really. She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything."

"Well, now's your chance," Yang said as she got up from her sleeping back, pulling Ruby to her feet a moment later. Blake looked up from the book she was reading when Ruby began to struggle, Yang letting out a loud- "Hellooo~" –in greeting. "I believe you two may know each other."

"Aren't you… the girl that exploded?" Blake questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah. My name's Ruby," she said extending her hand, but didn't get the shake she was looking for. "But you can just call me Craterrrr- Actually you can just call me Ruby," she nervously trailed off.

" . . . Okay."

"_What're you doing?" _Yang asked in a hushed tone.

"_I don't know, help me!" _Ruby quickly pleaded.

"So… What's your name?" Yang asked while Ruby tried to look as happy as possible.

"*sigh* Blake," she answered after a moment.

"Well, Blake, I'm Yang. Ruby's older sister," the blond greeted. "I like your bow. It goes great with your… pajamas."

" . . . Right," Blake replied, not lifting her eyes from her book.

" . . . Nice night don't you think?" the blond then asked, trying to start up a conversation.

"Yes. It's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book... That I will _continue _to read... As _soon_ as you leave," Blake answered, trying to get the two in front of her to take a hint and leave.

"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause," Yang replied plainly.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked.

"Huh?"

"Your book. Does it have a name?" Ruby repeated.

"Well… It's about a man with two souls… each fighting for control over his body," Blake replied, genuinely surprised that Ruby actually cared.

"Oh yeah, that's… real lovely…" Yang trailed off.

"I love books. Yang used to read me every night before bed," Ruby answered, the smile on her face. "Stories of heroes and monsters. They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress."

"Why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" Blake wondered, Jack curious as well.

"Well, I'm hoping we all will," Ruby answered. "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books, someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves."

"That's, very ambitious for a child," Blake replied with a smile, before her expression turned slightly dour. "Unfortunately, the same world isn't like a fairy tale."

"Well, that's why _we're _here. To make it better," Ruby replied, the sentiment causing Jack to grip his shirt above his heart. The next moment Yang started to coo over how cute her sister was, lifting her in the air and baby-talking into her ear. A moment later Ruby punched her sister in the face, which soon deteriorated into a brawl complete with a dust cloud that came out of _nowhere_, fists and feet flying into visibility every few seconds. Also, for some reason you could hear the sound of a _cat _somewhere in there, even though Blake was situated well outside the combat zone.

"Well… Ruby, Yang, it's wonderful-"

"What in the world is going on over here! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?" Weiss demanded as she came onto the scene, clad in a bluish sleeping gown with short sleeves and white trimmings, the Schnee logo emblazoned on the upper-right chest. Which… looked even smaller than when she was wearing her day clothes. She was a B-Cup at the _most, _her build petite, the only redeeming quality being centered around dexterity and short bursts of movement. "Oh not you again!" she and Yang suddenly cried out in unison.

"Ssh, guys, she's right, people are trying to sleep," Ruby said trying to calm both sides down before things escalated any further.

"Oh, _now _you're on my side," Weiss groaned, Blake laying her book down, having given up on reading any further.

"I was always on your side!"

"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice!"

"She's a hazard to my health!" Weiss said stomping angrily.

'_Okay, I know that girls of _any _species like to bicker when they're in proximity to one another, but this is just getting ridiculous,' _Jack thought to himself as the blond and white-haired girl continued to trade verbal barbs. Having seen how that conversation would continue, Blake proceeded to blow out her candles, coincidentally at the same time lights-out was declared, the room being smothered in darkness. _'Finally. I thought that white-haired harpy would _never _shut up,' _Jack sighed as he crawled into his sleeping bag, sweeping the room one more time for anyone who might try attacking him in his sleep.

Faunus night vision for the win.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**A few more "info dumps" to paint the pretty picture that is MY interpretation of Remnant. Everyone seems to have different ideas about what the Arc family is famous _for _exactly; I'm hoping what I have in mind for his familial ancestry is something new and refreshing. Once again, I've left more vague clues about Jack's past and how it influenced his future, but have yet to answer them since now is not yet the time. If you could leave some Reviews, I'd feel just a little more motivated to put out new chapters, so that I know people are enjoying my work and not just pressing the Favorite/Follow buttons. I'm trying to space them so there will be one ready every 2 weeks, though eventually there will be a lull when I get back to work on some of the other stories that have been sitting on the back-burner for more than a year. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but Flames and the Flamers that make them are _not_. As Agent Washington once said-  
**

**"****Stop lecturing me, or I will shoot you, and feed you to the Meta."**


	5. Initiation

**Another heads-up before this chapter starts. Same as Chapter 4 where Chapter 1 had also been re-written, in wake of Chapter 5, Chapter 2 has been re-written as well. As I said before, after receiving some good Constructive Criticism from a third party, I have a new perspective on how to write compelling chapters, so my earlier ones are being re-done, while I will put even more effort into the newer chapters. There's more world-building in the re-done Chapter 2, and the writing will be better overall, so I highly recommend it, as there are important elements to the narrative of the story. After Chapter 6 and the re-write for Chapter 3, there won't be any more re-writes.**

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter(s).**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The moment Remnant's sun peaked over the mountain range on the horizon, Jack's eyes snapped open. Eyes adjusting to the light, he limbered up, everyone else in the room still asleep. It was Sunday morning, 6:00 by his estimates, and with the Initiation starting at about nine, he had a couple hours to get ready.

Rolling up his sleeping bag and stashing it in the corner like instructed the night prior, he shouldered his backpack and moved to the first-year locker room. Each initiate was provided a rocket-propelled locker to stash their things, but it was only if they passed the Initiation that they were allowed to _keep _it. Also, the rockets were inert at the moment, so they were just ordinary lockers with holographic keypads for the time being. His locker, **#356**, was easy to find.

Not because of his sense of smell or something like that, but because they weren't all that difficult to find in the first place.

Changing out of his pajamas into his street clothes, he proceeded to put the entirety of his leather armor on over it, a pair of spaulders and a chest guard joining the gauntlets and greaves. With chest armor on, he was able to synch his tomahawk to the small of his back, while placing his axe over his left shoulder for easier reach. While he _was _versed in other forms of weaponry, the ones he had on-hand were the most familiar, and common enough that they would not be associated with any of his _prior _activities.

With everything he intended to take to the initiation on-hand, he made his way to the dining hall, a massive room with windows along the east wall, with rows of tables and benches that could cater to hundreds. The dining hall and buffet line were separated by an open-air wall, the smell of breakfast drifting through the room and rousing the appetite. While not quite opulent, the size was simply ridiculous.

However, when the yearly Vital Festival was taken into account, the sheer scale of the room began to make more sense.

Grabbing a tray from the corner of the room, he made his way to the buffet line and loaded up on everything he'd need to get him through the day. French toast, bacon, sausage links, orange juice, milk, and pancakes. Of course he wasn't stuffing his face for the fun of it. Beacon wasn't like any ordinary Combat School. Fighting Grimm on the first day was almost a guarantee, and he'd need all the energy he could scarf down.

As a nice Faunus girl with antlers on her head prepared an omelet loaded with cheese and veggies, he took the moment to appraise the ratio between Humans and Faunus in Beacon's staff. By the looks of them, most of them appeared to have been born just prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, a few born after the fact.

While those of the current generation were still being taught to hate the other race by the parents that chose to do so, in some cases those lessons wouldn't always stick, and some would be able to move past the memes impressed upon them by their parents and come to their _own _conclusions about the world around them.

It isn't about hating the guy on the on the other side because someone told you to. If you're going to hate someone, you should do it because they're an asshole or a pervert or a snob, or they're lazy or arrogant or an idiot or a know-it-all. _Those _are the reasons you dislike somebody. You shouldn't hate a person because someone told you to; you have to despise someone on a personal level. Not because they're Human, or Faunus, but because you know them and you see them every single day, and you can't stand them because they're complete and total fucking douchebags.

Or at least that was Jack's opinion on the matter. Words were cheap, and ultimately people would turn to violence to solve their quarrels with one another. It was difficult to maintain peace, but just _so _easy to regress back into a state of war. It was the natural tendency to hate one another, to look out only for yourself, but sometimes, _sometimes_, you could truly bring yourself to put another person before yourself with no ulterior motive.

Of course, bonds like that were hard enough to form as-is without cults running around and stirring the pot.

The White Fang may've been bad, but at least at the _start _they were non-violent. The Circle of Man, founded on old money well before the Faunus Wars even began, was rotten from the _start_. If ever you needed proof that Humans could be worse than the Creatures of Grimm, you didn't need to look very far as far as those hood-wearing torch-bearers were concerned.

'_I've dealt with their kind before. If they have their claws sunk into this school, I'll be able to see them coming from a mile away,' _Jack thought to himself as he stuffed his face. Fighting monsters was hungry business, and all of those calories that he was pouring down his gullet would be burned away quickly enough.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

That announcement was all the prompting Jack needed to get moving. Like the name implied, Beacon Cliff was a cliff just outside of Beacon Academy, overlooking the Emerald Forest a couple-hundred feet below. While a fall from that height would be daunting (and fatal) for the average person, for a Hunter-in-training with a rudimentary control over their Aura, it would be easy enough to come up with their own landing strategy.

Assuming they took the shortcut (i.e. jumping) instead of climbing down the old-fashioned way.

Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch were already present, looking through their staff-issued Scrolls as they waited for the Initiates to begin showing up. Stepping into the open, the two looked up, and panning his head left to right Jack realized he was the first to show up. Running his hand through his hair, Jack sighed as he stepped forward onto one of the metal tiles placed on the ground by the edge of the cliff. His ears catching an odd sound, he looked down before stomping his foot a couple times, listening to the sounds his foot made.

"Mr. Braxton, would you please refrain from kicking the…" Glynda said, only to pause when she was about to reveal one of the key elements of the Initiation.

"Catapults?" Jack hazarded a guess. There was a slight echo with each stomp, so he doubted there _wasn't _some kind of mechanism hidden underneath.

" . . . "

"Do try and keep it a secret. It might spoil the surprise," Ozpin said in a slightly-amused tone, making a shushing motion with his finger.

"You realize after the first of these goes off, the jig will be up, right?" Jack returned as he jabbed his thumb to the side.

"Maybe, but there's _always _someone who's caught unaware," Ozpin replied.

" . . . Fair point," Jack replied with a shrug.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

It was only a few minutes later that the rest of the Initiates showed up at Beacon Cliff, each would-be student taking position atop one of the tiles set on the ground. There were maybe two-dozen people in attendance, but it was doubtful that every single one of them would make the grade. Jack saw a few familiar faces in the crowd, many more that were not, and while he had positioned himself in the middle, his presence went mostly unnoticed as groups of two or three tended to gravitate toward one another.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors. Today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," Professor Ozpin went on to explain once he had everyone's undivided attention.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams," Glynda spoke up. "Well, allow us to put an _end _to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. _T__oday_."

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin took over. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

" . . . What!?" a frantic voice cried.

'_She… is not mentally prepared for this, is she?'_ Jack wondered as he turned to Ruby on his left.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you _will _die," Ozpin went on to explain. "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir?" Jaune asked raising his hand.

"Good!" Ozpin cut in, seemingly ignoring Jaune's raised hand. "Now, take your positions," he instructed, everyone taking poses on their tiles, some drawing weapons. Everyone looked ready to jump into combat and hit the ground running… all but Jaune who was still raising his hand like an idiot.

"Um, sir? I've got, um… a question," Jaune pressed on, completely missing Weiss being shot off the springboard, rocketing into the air and over the forest.

'_Oh my God, he really _doesn't_ notice,' _Jack realized as the blond continued to flap his gums. One by one down the line of tiles, students were sent flying in short order. Despite the number of students that continued to disappear on his left side, Jaune continued to remain completely oblivious as his turn to fly drew nearer and nearer. _'Seriously… the guy's family helps invent the patent office, but he can't take a hint?' _Jack thought to himself, suddenly remembering what the Arc Family was known for.

There was the one _other _thing the Arcs were famous for, but Jack didn't have any more time to think on it as the platform beneath _his _feet finally bucked upward, throwing him headlong into the Emerald Forest.

The wind whipping through his hair and clothes, one by one gravity reclaimed its hold on the other initiates, some with more… inventive landing strategies by others. A streak of blond showed that Yang had decided to give gravity the middle finger, a bouncing dot of white showed Weiss using floating Glyphs as aerial platforms, and Jaune... was tumbling haplessly head-over-heels and would probably die within the next twenty seconds if no-one pulled his ass out of the grease-fire.

His own flight coming to an end, the tree line approaching swiftly, he brought his leg up to his chest as a large tree rose up to meet him, before kicking out with explosive force.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Dropping into a crouch from the canopy, Jack circled his gaze all around. Satisfied he hadn't dropped right into a den of beowolves from the get-go, he rose to his feet and shook the leaves and twigs from his hair and clothes. Patting his cargo pockets, he eventually found the compass he put in there for just this occasion. Getting his bearings, he began walking north as instructed, hoping above all else he found someone he could _remotely _tolerate to be his partner for the next four years.

Either he would find someone en-route, or just wait at the temple for another un-paired person. As long as he kept his negative emotions to a minimum and stayed out of sight, the Grimm wouldn't take any notice of his presence in the forest.

Of course, the _method _for which Beacon intended to pair students up was questionable at best. "First person you make eye contact with" hardly sounded like a reliable method of situating lifelong partners together, as far as Beacon was concerned at least. If the two had conflicting personalities and/or belief systems, the lack of cohesion could potentially get one or both of them killed even _before _the first day of school.

'_Who knows. Maybe after all the shit I had to wade through to get to this point, I'll finally catch a lucky break,' _he thought to himself as he walked into a clearing.

"Waaah!"

"Ohmygod!"

"Dammit, keep it together you two!"

"Huh..." Jack hummed as he summed up what he walked in on. In short, it was three guys and one Ursa Major. And it was biiig.

Since the Ursa Major was seemingly unaffected by the Dust Ammo it was being pelted with, Jack decided to step in on the off-chance that someone he could stand was among the three. Unfurling his tomahawk, he let that sucker fly through the air in an arc, the end of the blade finding home in the Grimm's left shoulder blade amidst its bone protrusions. The Grimm's attention now diverted, the beast did an about-face before rushing headlong at Jack, arms as thick as tree trunks swinging wildly. As the Grimm reared its right arm back, Jack stepped _forward_, unfurling his axe and swinging it upward, cleaving two of the claws clean off its paw with an Aura-fueled strike.

The beast retreating in surprise as it registered the loss of its index and middle claw, Jack twirled his axe once again before lunging forward, the end of his axe biting into the underside of the Grimm's jaw. Its eyes widening in shock as a smoky black miasma began to gush out of the wound, Jack pulled down on the axe with all his might, freeing his weapon and pulling it free in the same motion.

Carrying the momentum around and overhead, Jack brought the end of his axe down directly onto the circular mark on the Ursa Major's mask with a sickening **_*THUNK*_**, stunning the Grim as it let out a startled grunt. Taking hold of the axe and jumping upward, Jack pulled the Grimm into a standing position, then, as gravity took over, craned the Grimm's head so far back it snapped with a **_*CRACK* _**as the Faunus' feet touched the ground. Pushing the dead Grimm onto its belly once again, Jack placed his foot against the creature's mask and ripped his axe free, then did the same with his tomahawk in its shoulder, before turning to see who he had just saved.

'_Oh god, it's _these _assholes,' _Jack internally groaned as he realized just who he'd saved. The three guys from the other night.

At the front of the pack, looking at Jack with a surprised expression after he took down that Ursa Major single-handedly, was the bushy-haired shirtless guy who was wearing green pants the night prior. Fully-dressed, he was now wearing green camouflage-colored fatigues, brown leather gloves, and matching combat boots on his feet. In his hands he held a green-colored sniper rifle with a mid-range scope, which for some reason had the bayonet folded back when I could just as easily be used in its default setting. Hooked to the belt on his waist were a number of ammunition magazines for his rifle.

To the left was the short-cut guy who had been wearing the duck-patterned pants. Compared to the other guy who was wearing military fatigues, his attire was more civilian-grade. Over a yellow-colored T-shirt he wore a denim jacket with the sleeves taken off, blue jeans, and a belt of ammunition around his chest. In his hands he held a double-barreled shotgun, the end surrounded in segmented blue armor featuring circular studs, like a club. The stock was not what one would traditionally associate with a shotgun, instead featuring a black rubber ergonomic grip, making the thing sooner resemble an oversized baseball bat than a club.

On the right was the blue-haired guy with the bowl-like cut that had been wearing the heart-patterned pants. His attire consisted of a burgundy-colored tunic and pants, with red-colored boots and forearm guards with lightish-red accents. In addition to the blade-edged bow in his hand and the quiver over his shoulder, he looked like an archetypical archer.

"So… Which one of you doesn't have a partner yet?" Jack asked, given he'd locked eyes with ALL of them, and by process of elimination, he was now paired with one of the three.

"That… would be me," the guy in the green fatigues panted as the last of the Ursa Major 'evaporated', leaving no trace behind aside from the crushed grass. "The name's Dominiiic…" he greeted, but trailed off as his gaze trailed upward to the small ears sticking up through Jack's hair. "Ugh."

"Is there a _problem_?" Jack asked. It was rhetorical of course. He saw the signs coming a mile away when their eyes went to his ears and their stances changed.

"No… Not at all…" Dominic said through clenched teeth as he looked around. There weren't any cameras visible that were watching them, but it would be bad form to let the instructors see his ugly side. "Just stay five feet behind us as we make our way to the temple," he said jabbing his thumb behind him to the north.

"What makes you think they'll attack from the _back_?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

" . . . Like I said, make sure you stay five feet in front of us," Dominic replied, playing off the change in position.

"Sure thing," Jack said with absolutely zero enthusiasm as he started marching.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Forty people had entered the Emerald Forest that year. Eight would acquire relics and return to Beacon Cliff without incident. Eight would acquire relics and return to Beacon Cliff after encountering... opposition. Ten wouldn't make the grade, and fourteen wouldn't make it out of the forest at all. Death was a Hunters' constant companion, even _before _they became Hunters, but to the teachers here at Beacon, it was simply another batch of students they had to ready for the future.

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the Black Bishop pieces. From this day forward you shall work together as Team Cardinal, led by, Cardin Winchester," Professor Ozpin announced as the four Human's mugshots arranged themselves into the abbreviation CRDN.

Applause followed, and the all-Human team stepped off the stage to make way for the next one, who had returned to the starting point second. While the four leaving the stage were tighter than family, the next group to step forward was marginally more divided, the Faunus among the group walking a few steps behind, while the other three would glare over their shoulders every few seconds.

"Dominic Moss, Ian Mallard, Jack Braxton, and Rudolph Hart. The four of you retrieved the Black Knight pieces. From this day forward you shall work together as… Team Dirge, led by, Dominic Moss," he announced as the four new mugshots arranged themselves into DIRJ. For those that knew Ozpin better, you could hear a touch of concern in the man's voice with how the Team was already acting first day in.

Applause followed, and Team Dirge left the stage, rudely shoving past the only non-Human member of the team and not thinking anything of it.

'_One day down… four years to go…' _Jack counted off as the remaining two Teams were announced. _'Just. Fucking. Perfect,' _he growled to himself as the rest of his team began to whisper I hushed tones. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what _they _were talking about.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Bet you didn't expect to see **_**those **_**three guys again, huh? When me and by Chief of Research (see ****Young Justice: The Hunter**** for details) were planning out this story's early stages, while we **_**did **_**consider having Jack become part of Team RWBY from the get-go, that would've been incredibly boring. And seriously over-done. **

**Anyway, the three OCs names are partially derived from the patterns of their pajama bottoms, Dominic Moss being the one with Green pants, Ian Mallard being the one with duck-patterned pants, and Rudolph Hart being the one with heart-patterned pants. Since they were some of the few background characters who weren't silhouettes in the first volume, we decided to work with what Monty gave us.**

**The first major deviation from Canon begins next chapter, both in the immediate setting, and that world's history as well. Hope you enjoy this and future updates.**


	6. The Rift between Humans and Faunus

**Just a little heads-up before the start of this chapter. Similar to Chapters 1 and 2, Chapter 3 has been re-written after a bit of constructive criticism helped me see some of he faults in my work before. The re-do for Chapter 3 will be the FINAL re-do, so no more backtracking. The order of events and world-building has changed slightly, and I've also streamlined it, so if you thought Ch3 was a little lackluster, here's to hoping the improvements stick.**

**Anyway, enjoy the start of this story arc, where things majorly (or minorly) deviate from canon.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Team RWBY had a pretty shaky start after their Initiation, but their fearless leader Ruby was able to pull everyone through. With all four of their beds on the floor, things had been a little cramped at the beginning, but Ruby and Yang were able to jury-rig a pair of bunk beds that were _totally _non-hazardous. They had almost been late to class on the first day, but they were just barely able to make it through. For some reason it never occurred to Ruby she could use her Semblance to get to class and then distract the teacher while the others snuck in. After Professor Port's class on Grimm Studies, Ruby's qualifications as a leader were brought into question by its second member, but after Ruby and Weiss had talked to both Ozpin and Port respectively, the two were able to reconcile, and the team was all the stronger for it.

As swiftly as it had started, the first week of school at Beacon had come to an end. As soon as they got back to the room, Weiss had been largely insistent they finish their Friday night homework _then_, instead of procrastinating until Sunday night, and because Ruby was trying to become a more-responsible leader, she acquiesced to the white-haired girl's request even though it was a bit of a drag. Two hours later, and with all their homework done meant that Saturday and Sunday were completely free. With nothing else to do and dinner still a couple hours away, Blake slinked off to the library, while Weiss headed off to the CCT, leaving the two sisters to their own devices.

**[Red_Rose has signed in]**

**Red_Rose: Hello? Is anyone there?**

**[White_King has signed in]**

**White_King: Hey Red. Just finished homework. How about you?**

**Red_Rose: Same here. Weekend totally free. Anyone else on?**

**White_King: Kaboom has detention for blowing up the Dust Lab.**

**Red_Rose: Yikes. What about Guardian?  
**

**White_King: She's out killing Grimm, so it's just us right now.**

**Red_Rose: Oh. **

**Red_Rose: Well, its still great to hear from you. **

**Red_Rose: How are things back at Signal?**

**White_King: Same old same old, can't complain. **

**White_King: Still can't believe you're at Beacon 2 years early. **

**White_King: You're definitely the bee's knees ;)  
**

**Red_Rose: I just want normal knees :(  
**

**White_King: A little late for that. **

**White_King: Still, I'm really happy for you.**

**White_King: The rest of us will have to pick up the pace if we don't want to be left behind.**

**Red_Rose: Maybe I'll put in a good word for you guys.**

**Red_Rose: Of course it's gonna cost ya ;)**

**White_King: I'll pass the word along to send you a basket of cookies.**

"Hey Ruby, who're you chatting with?" Yang looked up from her desk, her Ember Celica field stripped and getting cleaned.

"The gang back at Signal," Ruby said looking up from her Scroll. "No more snail mail for _this _girl."

"I would've let you borrow mine," Yang said pulling up her black pocket-sized Scroll.

"Why? So you can hack my FacePages account again and send embarrassing texts to all my friends?"

"Oh c'mon sis, that was only one time," Yang replied playfully.

"Yeah. One time," Ruby said with a flat expression. "For three days!"

"Hey, the _guys _seemed to get a real kick out of it," the blond replied with a saucy smile.

"Arthur couldn't look me in the eye for a week!" Ruby cried, the blush on her face as red as her hood.

"All I did was snap candid photos of you in your PJs," Yang defended. "They weren't even all that naughty."

"That's beside the point!" Ruby cried as she turned her attention back to her Scroll, finding a message waiting for her on-screen.

**White_King: So. How's Team RWBY doing?**

**Red_Rose: Everything's great!  
**

**Red_Rose: It was a little rough at first, but their fearless leader managed to pull everyone together.**

**White_King: What about the Schnee girl?**

**Red_Rose: What about her?**

**White_King: I mean did she explode again?**

**Red_Rose: What do you mean 'again'?**

**White_King: Wait, you really don't know?**

**White_King: It's all over the Interweb.**

**White_King: Here. I'm sending you the link.**

**White_King: [Link]**

"I wonder what he's talking about," Ruby mused to herself as she tapped the [Link], a video screen buffering for a couple seconds before playing. The clip was taking place outside, and there was a girl clad in a black gothic dress with a red hooded cloak being screamed at by a pale girl in white and a side ponytail. Half a minute into the video, the white-clad girl shaking something like a rattle, the red-hooded girl suddenly sneezed, the **_*KRA-KROOM!* _**causing Ruby to let out a high-pitched- "Yipe!" -and send the Scroll spinning into the air, the girl's hands frantically trying to take hold of it before it hit the floor.

"Wow, I thought the two of you were just exaggerating, but this is just _hilarious_!" Yang chuckled, having seen the video over her sister's shoulder.

"Yeah, but I wonder who took this," Ruby said trying to stifle her own laughter. Weiss would be absolutely _livid _if she knew her little temper tantrum had been recorded.

"Well, you told me you met Jack right after you exploded. Maybe _he _took it," Yang stated.

"Huh. That _would _make the most sense," Ruby hummed before something dawned on her. "Oh crap! I forgot all about him!" she then cried upon realizing she hadn't spoken to him for a week. "I've been having such a great time with my own Team, I forgot to get his scroll number!"

"Hey, don't worry about it sis. I'm sure he's been spending the week bonding with his team, is all," Yang said patting her sister's shoulder.

"I don't know about that..." Ruby said as she nervously bit her thumbnail. "Those three didn't look all that thrilled at the ceremony. If they're the sort of people that don't accept Faunus, then he might've been given a hard time all week."

"Hey, what's the worst that could happen? That they make him sleep outside by out-voting him?" Yang questioned, only for a sudden crack of lightning from outside to punch through the air, the sky darkening and a light drizzle following moments later. " . . . That doesn't sound good."

"I'm going to go look for him. Don't wait up," Ruby said as she jumped down from her bed and ran into the hall.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

Because furniture in the hallway constituted a fire hazard, the halls of the dorms were actually pretty bare, and it _was _possible to get lost given every single door looked exactly the same. The only real way to navigate the dorm was to check the holographic plaques that appeared above each door in response to movement. Team RWBY and JNPR's rooms were right across from one another, while Team CRDN and DIRJ were on the opposite end of the building. Given only four out of ten possible Teams had been accepted into Beacon that year, it was eerily quiet in the hallways, but nothing Ruby couldn't navigate.

Finally coming upon the precipice of the room she sought, the fifteen year-old raised her hand to knock on the door, her knuckles about to make contact with the hardwood before boisterous laughter from within stopped her dead in her tracks.

_"Well boys, it took all week, but I think that dumb animal is going to crack soon."_

_'Dominic?' _Ruby thought, recognizing the muffled voice behind the door from Prof. Oobleck's class. _'What is he talking about?'_

_"Yeah. All we have to do is push him a little bit more, and he'll be out of our hair forever."_

_"But seriously, his animal-stink is burning through all the air-freshener. I'm almost out."_

_'Ian... and Rudolph too?' _Ruby thought to herself. Lowering her head to peek through the keyhole, she slapped a palm to her forehead when she realized there _wasn't _a keyhole to peek through. To that end, she pulled a tall milk glass from God-knows-where, before pressing it, and her ear, to the door.

_"Seriously, what the hell is Ozpin thinking, putting us on the same team as that _thing_?"_

_"I know, right? He even gave the guy a bed instead of a_ cage_.__ What's up with that?"_

_"Stupid beast-blood. 'Badgers don't give a fuck?' Well we don't give a fuck about _badgers_! Or _any_ of those half-animal freaks!"  
_

_"Yeah, this is_ man's _world, and all those half-animal freaks are just wasting our space. _And_ our breathing air."_

_"Him and all those other beast-bloods should take a long walk off a short cliff."_

_"First chance we get, I say we take him out to the woods, break his legs, and leave him for the Grimm."_

_"Seriously, I wish we had a fourth Human on our team instead of that nasty beast-freak."_

_"Heh, I wonder what animal his bitch mother fucked to pump out such an ugly bastard like him."_

_"If he wasn't wet behind the ears before, he will be once that rain starts coming down. Man, I _love _democracy!"_

_"Hey guys, I was digging through that dumb animal's shit, and look what I found."_

_"A book? Well would you look at that, the little beast-blood thinks he's_ people_. How quaint,_" Dominic said before the sound of page being **_*RRRIP*_**ed met Ruby's ears.

_"Hey now, that looked expensive. We probably could've used that," _Ian spoke up.

_"Why bother? That thing probably has_ rabies _on it or something,_" Rudolph added, the sound of pages being ripped out assaulting Ruby's ears.

_'How... How can they say something so heartless... And about their own teammate?' _Ruby thought in response to the horrifying words she'd heard. Not only was she shocked, she was appalled-no... Absolutely livid, that the three of them could treat their own teammate, her _friend_, that way. _'Is this what Yang feels like when she goes red-eyed? No _wonder _she punches things so much...'_ she thought as she angrily punched the wall in front of her. _'Wow that was satisfying.'_

_"Wait, did you hear something?"_

_"Eep!" _Ruby **_*eep*_**ed upon being discovered.

_"Yeah, I think it came from outside."_

The door opening moments later, Dominic poking his head out and looking around. Passing it of as nothing, he turned around completely missing the trail of rose petals zipping into Team RWBY's room at the other end of the hall.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"Hey Rubes, how was-" Yang greeted as Ruby came into the room, only for the little ball of cookie-fueled energy to completely disregard her. Zipping into the walk-in closet on the left, moments later all manner of attire and random odds-and-ends were strewn into the room before Ruby exited the room, clad in a bright red raincoat and galoshes with an umbrella in her hands before zipping outside once again. "-Jack...?" the blond finished, wondering just what was going on.

Moments later the door opened once again, the cool beauty Blake stepping into RWBY's domain. Coming to a stop in front of the rug, which was strewn with articles from all four teammates, she simply raised her gaze to Yang before saying- "I'm not cleaning this."

"Drat," Yang pouted, snapping her fingers with a huff.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"Maaan, why didn't I get his Scroll number when I had the chance?" Ruby groaned as she left the dorms, the slight sprinkle from earlier having turned into a full-blown downpour. Opening her umbrella above her head, her rubber-clad boots stomped through the rapidly forming puddles as the rain continued to pour. She didn't know all _that _much about Jack, but she was sure he was _not _back in his room when she'd come to visit, otherwise the monochrome-haired Faunus would've knocked their teeth out. "Think think think... If I were a Faunus, where would I be...?" Ruby questioned as she ran around the dorm building, only to screech to a grinding halt. "Well, I guess if I were a Faunus, it wouldn't change _where _I was, only _what _I was," she mused deep in thought, before a crack of lightning from on high jolted her back into action. "Guess I'll have to do this the hard way."

Her rose-colored Aura pouring through her body into the soles of her feet, closing her umbrella and holding it tightly in her hands she shot off like a speeding bullet train. Were anyone else outside, they would've seen a red-colored blur zipping about through the rain, heedless of the water she kicked up in her wake. Eyes frantically darting all over the place, the only clue she even _had _as to Jack's whereabouts were the hurtful things his teammates were saying about him, so she just _assumed _he'd be outside somewhere. The constant use of her Semblance was causing her reserves to drop like a lead weight, her legs burning, but she soldiered on in the way only someone who could genuinely put another above themselves could.

Ruby had swept almost half of the school before her search came to an end, and the rain hadn't let up in the slightest.

Sitting in a gazebo in one of Beacon's east courtyards was Jack, hood pulled over his head and knees up to his chest. But the way he was shivering, the poor guy must've been absolutely miserable. Circling around to the steps, the moment her galoshes stepped out of the rain, Jack's downcast expression suddenly turned towards her. His gaze momentarily filling with ire, eyes turning a golden-amber not all that much unlike Blake's, Ruby was momentarily taken aback by the Faunus teen's glare before his gaze softened slightly, his eyes turning back to soothing jade with a blink of his eyes.

"Oh... Hey Ruby," he sighed. "How's it going?"

"Jack, are you okay?" Ruby asked as she walked over and sat at his side, throwing her hood back as the rain beat down mere inches from their backs.

"Pheh. What do _you _think?" he spat angrily as his eyes shifted in and out of golden-amber between blinks.

"I think... you might be hurting deep down inside," Ruby answered as she gripped the front of her coat above her heart. "I dropped by your room... and heard what they said," she said as her expression turned sour. "Argh! How could those three be so, so, so...!"

"Atrocious, barbarous, hateful, inhumane, spiteful, _rrracist?_" Jack said grouping for the word the younger girl was fishing for.

"I was going to say 'mean' but those are _much _better!" Ruby answered. She wasn't like her big sister who was able to rip a person a new one with words alone on the fly; she simply wasn't wired that way. The best she could come up with on short notice was that someone was a, _and I quote_, big, stupid jerk. _U__nquote_.

"Ruby... You're really sweet and all," Jack said as he playfully mussed her hair, "but you need to understand. Humans have been cruel to Faunus since Man was born from Dust. Whether it was alienating or enslaving us in the Dark Ages, or segregating and abusing us after the Great War, Humans have _always _taken joy in making people who look like _this_," he said pointing up to his secondary set of ears, "completely and utterly miserable. This treatment... isn't exactly anything _new_."

"But that still doesn't make it _right_!" Ruby shouted as she flailed her arms around angrily before balling her fists up in her lap. "I know we didn't really talk all that much on day one, and I don't know that much about you personally, but darnit, you're one of my best friends!"

"That's... very sweet of you to say," Jack said trying to pull the corners of his lips up into a smile. "Unfortunately, most of the world doesn't think that way," he sighed as his would-be smile fell, his weary visage simply not up to the task. "When Humans look at me, all they ever see... are _these_," he said running his hand over his ears. "Its especially bad for Faunus like me, because my parents and _their_ parents pissed in a _lot _of people's cornflakes in the last war."

"What... _did _they do in the last war?" Ruby asked. She wasn't ignorant to the goings-on of the world around her per-Se, but the Faunus Rights Revolution was a sore subject for _everyone_, so it was hard to get an honest answer out of anyone. Not only had her uncle taught her how to wield a High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe, but he'd also taught her whatever ways of the world he could to better prepare her for the path she had chosen.

One of which was how history was written by the winners, and that she shouldn't believe everything she read in a book. Only what she saw with her own eyes, and heard with her own ears.

**Cue Red vs Blue Season 8 OST - Rally**

"The humans that don't call us 'trash', or 'beast-blood', call us 'Honey Badger Faunus' because of the animal we draw our animal-like traits from," Jack started as he motioned to his ears and monochrome-colored hair. "However, during the last war, there was another name for us. 'Bloody Badgers'," he said as he leaned forward and interlaced his fingers. "The stories about _why _the Faunus Rights Revolution started vary depending on who you ask, but the most-consistent story is that Faunus were living on desirable, relatively Grimm-free plots of land, and Humans wanted those lands and all their resources for themselves. The Faunus were nomadic in the past because it was easier to keep moving and not have everyone working against you every step of the way, but after the Great War ended, we wanted to lay down roots and find a place we could call home. Humans didn't like that, so they decided to force us out of the four Kingdoms and cram all of us onto a dinky little sub-continent on the ass-end of the world."

"Menagerie..." Ruby muttered under her breath, remembering that much from Signal's history classes when they hadn't bored her to tears.

"Menagerie, noun. A collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition," Jack recited, the contempt in his voice barely hidden. "Whoever named it that must've done it to _intentionally _piss us of... and it worked like a charm. We took up arms and united under a single cause, because if we all got shipped off to their little prison island at the end of Remnant, we knew it'd only be a matter of time before they decided to wipe us out completely."

When those words left Jack's lips, Ruby wanted to refute him, say that Humankind would _never _think of doing something so cruel and heartless. However, right as she was about to voice that thought, she realized she _couldn't_. In the last hour she'd heard _three _humans openly talk about breaking his legs and leaving him for the Grimm. So complete and utter genocide wasn't completely out of the question.

It hurt to know she could never deny her friend's words without being a liar liar pants on fire.

"Their armies outnumbered ours five-to-one. Not only that, but they were better-equipped, better-trained, and had allies on and off the battlefield to call upon," Jack continued. "By all rights we should've lost within the first month, and been shipped off to their little cage the second. However, a ray of hope pierced the fog of war, as my parents and their parents before them took to the battlefield. A normally-isolated Faunus tribe that kept away from all others, living in the most-isolated lands that few else would dare to touch, my predecessors heeded the call of our countrymen and _fought _for our freedom!"

At that declaration his expression suddenly brightened. Rising from his seat as his eyes shone like twin stars in the night, a genuine smile stretched across his face from ear to ear. Ruby was practically on the edge of her seat, anxious to hear more of this epic tale of non-fictional heroes. Few Faunus would _ever _willingly talk about such a sensitive topic, so for the little girl in red who absolutely _adored _stories to be hearing one from someone who spoke with so much enthusiasm... It was a real treat.

"My kin of generations past _turned _the tide of the war, slaughtering those self-serving human bastards by the hundreds. Nay, _thousands_! Rivers ran red with blood, battle-hardened warriors _fled_ in our wake! All the evil in their hearts drew the Creatures of Grimm to them in _droves_, drenching the eastern forests of this country with so much blood they remained red to this very day!" he regaled with great enthusiasm.

So much so that Ruby momentarily _forgot _he was casually talking about the slaughter and dismemberment of her own people.

"However... those victories came at a heavy cost," he said as the once-radiant light left his eyes, a sense of dread washing over him as he slumped back into his seat. "At the slightest showing of weakness on the battlefield, my kind were descended upon like hungry wolves upon lamb. Their bodies bloodied and broken, their scalps were torn from their skulls and held aloft as trophies for all the blood they had spilled."

"Wh... What?!" Ruby cried, horrified at what she was hearing. She wanted to deny this too, turn away from what she was hearing, but as her uncle Qrow told her, war was a terrible, _terrible _thing. That it could turn even the most gentle, kindhearted soul into a foul beast far worse than even the most bloodthirsty Grimm.

She hadn't understood what he'd meant until that very moment, her friend practically on the verge of tears as the dream-like euphoria that once held him in its loving embrace turned into a horrifying nightmare, snuffing out the wondrous light that once filled him to the brim.

"You know... I grew up on stories like this. The good _and _the bad," Jack admitted as he raised his head. "For better or worse, my mother told me of the horrors that war brought about. She loved me more than anything, protected me from all the ugly things in this world for as long as she could, but this was he one thing she _wouldn't_ let me turn away from."

It was at this moment that the dam finally burst, and tears flowed freely from his eyes.

"I can still remember the graves. So... so many graves," he said through his tears. The memory of cresting that beautiful flower-covered hill, only to come upon an expanse of grave markers that stretched on for as far as his eyes could see... "If we don't learn from the past, we'll be doomed to repeat it. After that day... I realized just how terrible war could be. When I think about all the husbands that never got to see their wives again, or mothers and fathers who would never hold their children in their arms..."

"Jack..." Ruby cried as tears started to trickle down her own cheeks. Her hands reaching out to grasp his own, one of his own was interjected between them, a finger raised and barring her path.

"We lost so many over the course of that war... but eventually cooler heads prevailed, and an olive branch was extended by both sides to end the fighting," Jack said as he wiped his tears. "The war had taken so much, from so many of us on both sides, so the end of the war was like waking from a long nightmare. While on paper the hostilities against Faunuskind had come to an end, by that point _my _race had been hunted nearly to extinction. For every 'Bloody Badger' that took to the battlefield, a hundred humans fell to each one of us, and to those that were left behind, heads of hair like mine are like salt on the wound," he said as he ran his fingers through his unique monochrome-colored of hair.

"That... That happened _ages _ago!" Ruby cried as Jack's sad story finally came to an end. "Not only that, but you weren't even _born _yet! They can't just treat you like this simply because one of your relatives _may have _killed one of theirs!"

"It also doesn't help that even though I'm not Human, I'm still technically _black _in their eyes," Jack said trying to break the tension with humor before he turned to her. "I... may've gone a _little _overboard with my storytelling, but you took the tales of blood and slaughter of your people incredibly well... _Why_?"

**Cue RWBY Volume 1 OST - Wings**

"Because if I were a Faunus back then, and my friends and family were going to be shipped off to the other side of the world just for being born different, I'd fight for what's right, just like them!" Ruby proclaimed as she got up from her seat and stood in front of him. "Everyone, Human _and _Faunus, are all entitled to the same freedoms, and no-one has _any _right to take them from anyone else."

At this, the deluge both in and out of their hearts came to an end.

"Whoa..." Jack gaped with wide eyes as the clouds parted. And he wasn't _only _stunned by the sincerity of her words.

They say the beacon of possibility only requires a single ray of hope to keep going, but as the sun's light shone around Ruby's back, it was as though the world was being flooded by the light within the young girl's heart. For a moment he thought he was in the presence of a scarlet-clad guardian angel, extending her hand to him in his time of need. However, as he blinked the light from his eyes, he realized that Ruby was all too human.

And sometimes, that was all it really took.

"You know..." Jack said as he regained his composure, that moment in time preserved in his memory for all time. "Most Humans automatically think _we _were in the wrong, but hearing that from someone so young... There might just be hope for our two species yet."

"I'm not _that_ young," Ruby pouted with puffed cheeks.

"Sorry, sorry," Jack replied as he held up his hands. "Well... looks like the rain came to a stop. I guess I'll see you later," he said as he rose from his seat.

"Wait, where are you going?" Ruby cried as Jack walked past her.

"The library," Jack answered as he turned to face her. "If you prop the right kind of book under your head, its actually quite comfortable."

"You've been sleeping in the library!?" Ruby cried. "Why?!"

"I got outvoted. Its out of my hands," Jack sighed, Ruby's hands going to her moth as she audibly gasped. "But... talking with you... hearing you say what you did..." he said as the last of the sadness evaporated from his features. "I think... I might be able to hold on for a little longer. So thank you. For everything," he said, slightly bowing before he turned to walk away. _'Ruby Rose... You might just be able to bridge the rift between our two races. I just hope I'm still around to see it.'_

**OST END**

"Jack, wait!" Ruby cried as she leaped out of the gazebo, wrapping her arms around his legs and stopping him in place. "Don't go! Let me help you!"

"Ruby, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but-"

"Wait a minute. I've got a _plan_!" the red-hooded girl proclaimed as she cut him off mid-sentence, a finger raised to the heavens.

_'Just how good is this girl's sense of timing?' _Jack wondered as another ray of light shone down upon her at that very moment.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hey Yang, Blake, I'm back," Ruby said a few minutes later as she and Jack entered her room, the mess she'd made now cleaned up.

"Hello Ruby. Who's your friend?" Blake asked from her spot on the bed as she looked up from her book.

"Jack. I'm a friend of Ruby's" the "only" Faunus in the room answered.

"You know sis, if you wanted to have a little alone time with a _boy_, you could've given us a little notice," Yang teased playfully.

"Y-Yang!" Ruby cried red-faced to what her sister was saying in front of her friend.

"That or tied a sock to the door," she egged on as she unashamedly eyed Jack up and down. "Oh yeah. Momma likes, rowrrr..." she purred as she drank in his muscled arms and broad shoulders.

"Nice to meet you too," Jack replied casually as Yang bat a fist his way like a cat's paw.

_"I am not amused," _Blake muttered to herself as she buried her nose into her book, the bow on her head twitching angrily.

"So sis, feel like dealing me in on a three-way game of Black _Jack_?" she punned with a wink.

"Yang, this isn't the time, or the place!" Ruby cried as she got her blushing under control. "There's something really serious going on, so you need to listen to what I have to say!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**A few minutes later...**

"Those bastards! I'll _kill _them!" were the first words that left Yang's mouth after hearing what the three Humans on Team DIRJ had been doing to Jack for the past week. Whether it was making him sleep outside by vote, allocating his bedspace for all their useless crap, or treating him like a mental invalid, she was _pissed_!

_"She's really fired up about this isn't she?" _Jack whispered as Yang continued to pace around the room, spewing obscenities under her breath as embers danced off her hair.

_"Yeah, she can get pretty_ fired up _if you know what I mean,_" Ruby replied as she nudged him with her elbow.

_"Insert fire-related pun here," _Blake said with a small smile on her face.

_"Booo," _Ruby boooed in response to the cop-out.

_"For the record, I wasn't even_ trying _to make a pun,_" Jack interjected before Yang got up in his face.

"Come with me, Jack! We're going to knock some _sense _into those assholes!" the pretty blond growled as she cocked her Ember Celica. "And if that doesn't work, I'll shove my boot _right _up their ass!"

"Yang, wait, violence is never the answer," Ruby said trying to let calmer heads prevail.

"Except for when words fail. Then violence is _always _the answer," Jack said plainly.

_"You're not helping!"_ Ruby scolded under her breath before turning to her sister. "Look, sis, why don't we pull it back a bit? Jack and I will go talk to Ozpin, and if that doesn't pan out, _then _you can shove your boot up their butt. Okay?"

Inhaling deeply for all of ten seconds, she emptied out her lungs with a heavy sigh, her eyes shifting back to lilac as she leveled out. "Yeah... Yeah okay."

"To the principle's office!" Ruby shouted with fist raised and cape fluttering in an unseen wind.

Grabbing hold of Jack's arm, right as Weiss entered the room her red blur of a teammate (plus one) suddenly shot past her and into the hallway. Twirling haplessly with rose petals fluttering in her face, the toe of her wedge boot snagged the edge of the rug, sending her sprawling onto the floor and flat on her face.

"Hey Weiss, how was your _trip_?" Yang asked without missing a beat.

"Boooo," Blake _boooo_ed.

"Shut up, that was funny and you know it," Yang said back as Weiss got to her feet.

"So... What's our 'fearless leader' up to now?" Weiss asked as she straightened out her hair, attempting to get used to Ruby's antics.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**I wasn't initially planning on talking about Jack's kin and their role in the Faunus Rights Revolution this soon. However, for some reason, as I listened to "Dream Come True" by Jeff Williams &amp; Cassey Lee Williams on endless loop (a song which, might I note, has a _completely _contradictory theme to the tone I was grouping for), it all just came to me. It may've been because of the way that song stimulated my neurotransmitters, but I'm not a Neurochemist with a doctorate in the subject, so don't quote me on that.  
**

**Jack isn't normally the type to break down into tears, far from it. While I'm not Jewish, the closest comparison I can make to his emotional state at that point in time is like that of a Jewish person recalling Holocaust after being made to learn of all the horrifying shit the Nazis pulled so they'd understand the importance of dialogue over conflict. Jack's mother was very loving, make no mistake, but the reason she drove that point home like she did was so Jack wouldn't grow up thinking war was as glorious as it was portrayed in the propaganda.**

**Moving away from all that... Yes, Jack is going to become part of Team RWBY in a couple chapters. Is it something that's been done before? Yes and no. Yes, Team RWBY will be getting a fifth member; in a couple chapters. No, I don't recall a story where the add-on was part of a DIFFERENT Team before racial tensions broke them apart and they had to go through official channels to get him transferred.**

**Also, everyone makes out Team CRDN to be a bunch of racist assholes, which they are, so I don't see the problem with having **_**another **_**Team be racist assholes too; law of probability, there's bound to be more than one. When I re-watched RWBY in preparation to make this story, when I saw those 3 guys in the ballroom, I thought- "If those background characters had any kind of personality, they'd probably be a bunch of racist dicks too." It's just the vibe I got. **

**Sorta.**

**Anyway, as for the chatroom that Ruby was on before (FacePages dot Biz, try and guess that reference), she **_**did **_**say she had friends back at Signal, they just never get brought back up again after the 3****rd**** episode. Nor did they ever bring up _Yang's_ friends again, after the 2nd episode, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.**

**P.S.  
Tell me what you think of the musical cues. I think they really drove the point home, but I'd like some secondary opinions on that. Hell, I'll settle for _tertiary_.**


	7. School Ruling

**I probably didn't make it clear-enough back in Chapter 1 that Jack Braxton was Black, like I did in Chapter 6 where he said outright that at least by Human standards, he is in fact Black. To answer what SHADE of Black he is, him and Emerald Sustrai have the same skin tone. Of course, "Black" to Faunus doesn't mean the same thing it does for Humans, so... yeah.  
**

**Just figured I'd point that out. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

The office of Beacon's headmaster was truly something to behold. Situated atop Beacon's tallest spire and nestled right below its namesake, the view was nothing short of spectacular. The room was circular, its coloration primarily gray, pillars framing the edges of the room and the motif dominated by gears both dynamic and stationary. Dominating the floor was a massive clock-based carpet in shades of dark and light green with twelve diamonds set every 30 degees from the center. The room's only window doubled as half of a large clock face, and no high-quality photograph could _ever_ hope to capture the splendor that Ozpin Greene was privy to every single day.

Overhead through a large pane of off-green glass was a _massive _array of gears, springs, studs, bridges, and other parts that only a veteran clockmaker could ever hope to identify. Most would assume the dynamic display was purely aesthetic and that it was installed in recent years, but they couldn't be any farther from the truth. The array situated overhead had existed since the Dark Ages, converting kinetic energy into electricity which went on to fuel the massive beacon that gave the academy its name. A little known fact about that beacon was that the light was not created by an ongoing Dust Reaction, but by the heating of massive filaments within a vacuum, and at the time of its creation had been the most-advanced piece of technology on the face of Remnant.

Yet despite how the times had left it behind, you would be hard-pressed to find a sight more grand within the kingdom of Vale.

At the moment, Ozpin was situated behind his oddly-shaped desk, sitting across from both Jack and Ruby who he had consented to see even without an appointment; something that very few others could claim. Jack sat in the chair to the right, arms crossed and his expression neutral, while Ruby's were flailing about and her expression portraying her naked emotion.

The girl in red, having changed out of her raincoat and galoshes once the rain had stopped, was now explaining to Ozpin all the information about Jack's treatment by Team DIRJ she'd accumulated over the last couple of hours. From what she'd heard through the team's door all the way to hers and Jack's conversation at the gazebo in the east courtyard, no stone was left unturned as she poured out every bit of hurt she'd been bottling up inside her after learning what Jack had been made to go through for the past week.

Once she voiced her proposed course of action, it was then that Ozpin spoke up.

"I'm sorry Ms. Rose, but I'm afraid I cannot comply with your request," Professor Ozpin stated after hearing Ruby's request.

"What? Why?" Ruby asked aghast. "I'm not asking for _muuuch_, just that maybe that you could move Jack from Team Dirge to Team Ruby. It isn't _too _big of a deal, right? Right?"

"On the contrary, it is quite a 'big deal'," Ozpin replied as he adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "When students are arranged into Teams during initiation, they are expected to remain as such for the duration of their four years at Beacon. While the initial partnership is dictated by first contact, students are still expected to approach potential teammates tactfully, wary that whoever they are partnered up with will become their lifelong partner," he explained. "At least as far as Beacon's four-year curriculum is concerned, anyway."

"But they'll just keep making Jack miserable until he quits Beacon!" Ruby argued.

"Be that as it may, I cannot simply transfer a person between Teams because they are having internal conflicts," Ozpin stated, the red-hooded girl deflating as a defeated expression overtook her face. "However..." he then spoke up as he stroked his chin, causing the red-hooded girl to look up at him with a hopeful expression. "I may be able to find _something _to help your case," the headmaster said as he walked over to his bookshelf. Taking another sip from his mug, his eyes perused the contents of his shelves before pulling a large leather-bound tome free. "Tell me Ms. Rose, do you know what Beacon Academy was before it became a school for future Huntsmen and Huntresses?"

"The final stronghold of the Valian monarchy during the Great War," Ruby answered. She wasn't a humongous history buff, but the interesting stories _did _stick with her.

"That's right. And do you know what the largest problem was during Beacon's first decade in service?" the silver-haired man asked, Ruby shrugging her shoulders. "Discrimination. Although back then Faunus had yet to begin attending, so instead of by species, it was by ethnicity. Sometimes, people from different Kingdoms perceived one another to be too different to work well with, and this caused tensions between people of different cultures."

"So you're saying in the past... there were Teams where three people were all from one Kingdom, and the odd man out had to be transferred out?" Ruby questioned.

"In a sense. However, the minority could not request _themselves _a transfer. Instead, the leader of another Team had to make it on their behalf, which you have already done," Ozpin explained.

"Well then, where are Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph from?" Ruby asked.

"If I recall correctly..." Ozpin said as he pressed a button on his keyboard, a holographic screen popping up in response. "Ah, yes. It appears the three of them from are from Vale, born and raised. Jack on the other hand is Atlesian by birth, though raised outside the kingdom's borders."

"And what does that mean for _us_ exactly?" Jack asked pointing between himself and Ruby.

"It means we just might have a case on our hands," the man replied with only the faintest of smiles.

"Yes! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouuuu!" Ruby squealed as she leaned over the desk and hugged the headmaster. "Did you hear that Jack? You're going to be part of the Team! Isn't that great?"

"Not that I'm not happy," Jack stated. _'And trust me, I really am,' _he thought to himself. "But it can't be that simple, can it?"

"I'm afraid not," Ozpin replied with a shake of his head. "Though the Great War _had _long since ended after Beacon's founding, the lines in the dirt were still drawn from when the Four Kingdoms competed against one another for precious resources. While united under the common goal of progress after the end of the Dark Ages, we were still divided by the illusion of separation. Historically, there was only meant to be _one _Hunter Academy, where people the world over would congregate under a single roof. However, each Kingdom wanted to be _the _Kingdom to influence all future Hunters, and as such in the years following the founding of Beacon Academy, the academies of Pharos, Watchtower, and Haven followed in swift order."

"Wait, is Jack going to be joining our Team or not?" Ruby asked, trying to sift through all the history for what Ozpin was really trying to say.

"I am saying that the ancient rule we will be basing this transferal around is a double-edged sword," Ozpin replied. "To resolve the issue within Team Dirge, it will not be through the power of dialogue, but through combat as was done in the days of old, and it must be between Jack and the other members of his team simultaneously. If he should lose, he will be expelled from Beacon... and deported back to Atlas."

"What? But that's not fair!" Ruby cried in outrage.

"Life rarely is, I'm afraid," Ozpin replied with a shake of his head. "At the time of its induction, the Rule of Division seemed the most effective way of resolving racial tensions within Teams. Either the one contradictory element would be removed entirely, or accepted into another Team and the old one would eventually be given a replacement. The only other option was that all team members quit simultaneously, and attempt to form a new team the following year."

" . . . So you're saying all I have to do is win a three-on-one death match, and I'll be good?" Jack asked after a minute.

"Yes, in simplest terms," Ozpin stated.

"Jack wait, it'll be three on one, and they may really try to kill you!" Ruby argued.

"Then what would you have me do?" Jack snapped back. "My hands are tied! I can't keep living like this much longer, with a team full of people who'd sooner feed me to the Grimm! Besides..." he said as he reeled in his emotions. "I've faced worse odds in the past, I'll be fine. All _you _need to worry your pretty little head about is breaking the news to your team," he said giving Ruby a reassuring smile. "Have a little faith in me, and I'll deliver. Can you do that for me?"

" . . . Yes," Ruby answered after a few moments. "While its true I don't know _everything _about you... I know that you're a good person who doesn't deserve the treatment you've been getting, and that you've got strong hands," she said remembering the vibe she got from him when they first met. It was the same vibe she got from her uncle Qrow, someone who was strong not only of body but also of heart, and would keep whatever promises they made. When she first started out with her HC-SS she was total garbage, but Qrow promised he'd turn her into the most kick-ass Huntress-to-be he could, and he delivered. "I'll be cheering you on."

"I won't let you down," Jack replied, giving a thumbs up. The thing about his hands was a little weird, but he just took that as Ruby being Ruby.

"Well then, it seems we have now met the base requirements to constitute a verbal contract," Ozpin stated. "However, for clerical purposes, we'll need to draft an _actual _contract for this transaction. Since instances of this nature are so rare, I'll have to draft the contract by _hand_," the man said digging into his desk; _beneath _the moving clockwork it contained. A minute or so later he had laid out a sheet of parchment, a quill, and an _inkwell _of all things. Arranging his workspace in front of him after mixing up the ink, the man held the quill deftly in his right hand just above the inkwell, closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh.

For a full minute after that he remained completely still and silent.

Then another.

Then another.

Then _another_.

"Um, Professor Oz-"

And then it happened.

The man's eyes snapping open, containing a sharpness neither had yet to see from him, his right arm and the quill in his hand suddenly blurred into action. The limb and utensil a blur of dark green and white, while it looked like he was simply pecking at the paper, each darting motion of his hand gave birth to a single word, written in eloquent cursive font. For a normal person each word by itself should've taken a full minute to articulate, yet entire words and sentences were being drafted as though the man were typing single letters on a computer.

When the display of skill and speed had come to an end, the sheet of parchment was covered in cursive and slightly warmer than room temperature, a wisp of smoke lazily rising from the end of his quill where some of the ink had been vaporized. Jack's eyes were widened at the display and his jaw slightly dropped, while Ruby's were the size of dinner plates and _her_ jaw fallen straight into her lap. As Ozpin proceeded to quench the now-dry inkwell, Jack cupped a hand under Ruby's chin and closed her mouth, the fifteen year-old still completely dumbstruck at the sight.

_'If the guy can do that with a quill to paper, imagine what he could do to a Grimm with a knife,' _Jack thought as he shook off his dumbstruck expression, the school's headmaster looking over the contract he'd just drafted.

_'Whoa that's fast!' _Ruby gaped. _'I wonder if I could use my Semblance to finish my_ homework _that fast,_' she mused to herself as Ozpin placed the contract on the desk, spun it around, and pushed it towards them.

"Everything seems to be in order. Now, I simply need the two of you to consent to the agreements of the contract," Ozpin stated.

"Which are...?" Ruby asked trying to make sense of all the legal terms strewn throughout the paper.

"There aren't that many loopholes to be exploited, so the terms of the contract are pretty basic," Ozpin stated as he took a sip from his mug. "Jack Braxton agrees to follow the chain of command within Team Ruby, and Ruby Rose in turn will ensure that his grades remain within tolerable levels. It would be bad form to have Jack moved to a _third _Team, so if things don't work out, he will have to be expelled from Beacon and complete his studies at whatever school will take him. The rest is simply about the adherence of school rules within the dorms, but you already knew that."

"You hear that, Jack? You're halfway home!" Ruby said with a smile, Jack signing the document, followed by Ruby.

"Now, all we need is a witness signature, and this contract will be fully legalized," Professor Ozpin stated as he watched the ink dry. "For sake of credibility, I'd recommend another Team Captain whose line of thinking is the same as yours."

"But, couldn't _you _sign as the witness?" Ruby asked.

"I'm the school's Headmaster and the one who drafted this contract. That would be a conflict of interest," the man stated.

"I know just the person," Ruby said with a grin. "Jack, wait here, I'll be right back," she instructed as she zipped out of her chair. The piece of furniture spinning wildly in a cloud of rose feathers, the girl was rapidly _***tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap***_ping the call button without end, the red-hooded girl already inside the elevator and _***tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap***_ping the **G **button before the door had even finished _opening_.

"So..." Jack hummed as he sniffed the air. "Hot chocolate?" he queried as the metal doors shut, drowning out Ruby's incessant button-pushing.

"Quite," Ozpin replied taking another sip from his mug. "Would you like a cup?"

"If it isn't too much trouble," Jack replied. While the number of Humans he trusted not to eventually stab him in the back was relatively low, Ozpin was well on his way to putting himself on that list with how helpful he was being. Of course Ruby currently had the top slot on his Trust Pending list, but that was a given.

"I'm curious," the man stated as he walked over to a kitchenette off to the side. "Where exactly did you learn to fight?"

"Why the sudden interest?" Jack asked as he rose from his seat and walked over to the window.

"I noticed the ease with which you handled that Ursa Major during the initiation. Particularly the axmanship you displayed," the silver-haired man replied as he walked up to Jack and passed him the mug. "As I recall, that _particular _style is not native to Atlas. Nor is it native to Vacuo or Mistral or even Vale. That leaves only a scant few other places it could've originated."

"Wait until my duel with Dominic and the others and maybe it'll jog your memory," Jack replied as he took a sip from his mug. "Where should I put this when I'm done?"

"Keep it. I have a closet full of them," Ozpin replied casually.

"Huh, didn't think you one for jokes." **_*Siiip*_**

_***CREEEEEAK***_

"I wasn't joking."

"Uh... Yeah... I noticed."

"I should call someone up to fix that."

"Yeah, probably."

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**Twenty minutes later...**

"Hey guys, we're back," Ruby greeted as she, and Jaune, stepped out of the elevator and back into Ozpin's office.

"Ozpin has a closet full of coffee mugs," Jack stated as he raised his cup to his lips.

"Um... What game are we playing exactly?" Jaune asked.

"Never mind," Jack sighed.

"Hello, Mr. Arc. I assume Ruby briefed you on what this meeting is about?" Ozpin asked as he moved back behind his desk.

"Yeah. She didn't really shy away from the details," Jaune said as he ran his hand through his hair. "Look, Jack, I don't know you all that well, but you're a pretty cool guy and you shouldn't be treated that way by your own Team, so whatever you need, I'm your man."

"I'll be sure to archive that sentiment," Jack replied as Jaune moved up to the desk. _'Hm. Smarter than I thought,' _the Faunus noted as Jaune actually took the time to _read _the contract he was signing witness to.

"Aaaand... Done," Jaune said finishing up the last C. "This contract is now legally binding!"

"That it is," Ozpin said as he slid the contract over to the side.

"So when is Jack's big fight?" Ruby asked, excited to see what Jack could do. You fell a tree with only a tomahawk from long-range, and you leave a lasting impression on an impressionable, weapon-crazed teen.

"It would be prudent to settle this matter as soon as possible so nothing falls between the cracks," Ozpin said as he began typing on his computer for a few seconds before pressing the Enter key. "I've set the duel for tomorrow at high noon in the Dueling Arena, and have notified Team Dirge about the upcoming event. That will leave Sunday free for Jack to get acquainted with his new Team and move his belongings, without disrupting classes on Monday morning."

"Yes, that's totally perfect!" Ruby cheered.

"How exactly did your Team take this when you texted them back in the elevator?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Blake and Yang gave it the thumbs-up, and mine being three makes it majority rule," Ruby said with a proud look on her face.

"What about Weiss?"

"She never texted back," Ruby said with a shrug of her shoulders. "But don't worry, I'm sure she'll warm up to the idea."

_'I... highly doubt that...' _Jack thought to himself. Whenever he tried to _imagine_ Weiss being cool with an undisguised Faunus joining Team RWBY, all he could come up with was her temper tantrum back at the landing pad on Day 1.

Well... More like Day 0, but that's beside the point.

As the three Hunters-to-be left the room, Ozpin took a sip of his coffee and he spun his chair around.

To be honest, while he _predicted _that racial tension might drive Team DIRJ apart, hence the name, he had hoped the three Humans of the team would be able to see past their hate for the Faunus race and come to an understanding. When that didn't come to pass, Ruby acted like Qrow said she might when it involved her friends, and did what he himself could not. While he _was _Headmaster of the school, he couldn't afford to show any favoritism, so it wasn't until Ruby came to his office that he would be able to act upon his desire to help mend the divide between Human and Faunus.

"The stage is set, and the players are ready. All that's left to do, is let the show go on."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hey guys, we're back!" Ruby greeted as she entered the domicile of Team RWBY.

"I miss anything?" Jack asked as he closed the door behind him.

"Nope. We were just waiting for you to get back before heading out for dinner," Yang replied.

"Hold on a minute, what is going on here? And what is that _thing _doing in our room?" Weiss asked as she jabbed a finger in Jack's direction, the Faunus in the room visibly bristling in anger.

"Day after tomorrow, my buddy Jack here is going to be a part of Team Ruby!" the red-hooded girl cheered.

"He'll WHAT?!" Weiss cried in shock as she grabbed the front of Ruby's blouse. "Why wasn't I informed of this!?"

"You weren't?" Ruby asked in surprise. "Yang, I thought I told you to tell the others!"

"I _did _tell the others," Yang argued. "I forwarded the message to Weiss after telling Blake, but she never replied."

"I'll have you know I received no such- Oh..." Weiss hissed as she flipped through her Scroll, only to lose her verbal momentum. "Here's the problem. It went straight to my spam folder."

"Why am I in your spam filter?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Last week you forwarded me nothing but cat videos!" Weiss hissed.

"They were hilarious!" Yang argued in her defense. "Especially the ones with the laser pointer. Silly kitty."

_" . . . Can you forward me those videos?"_ Ruby whispered behind her hand after a moment.

"Now is not the time!" Weiss interjected. "Ruby, instead of sending the memo to just Yang, why didn't you send it to me too with carbon copy?"

"I don't even know what that is," Ruby countered.

"Weiss, I don't see what you're whining about," Blake cut in from her spot on the bed. "Even without you present, we were still able to get majority vote on this."

"I find it ironic that the very thing that was used to try and force me out, is being used to help me stay," the visible Faunus in the room stated.

"Quiet you!" Weiss growled jabbing a finger in Jack's face.

"Hey, move it or lose it!" Jack growled with narrowed eyes as he bared his fangs.

"Hah! Like you have the guts to try!" Weiss challenged. "I am a Schnee, and I will not stand for-"

**_*Chomp*_**

"Ow! That thing bit me!" Weiss shrieked as Jack's teeth bit down around her index finger.

"That _thing _has a name!" Blake growled with narrowed eyes.

"Way to give him the _finger_, Weiss," Yang whooped.

"Can't we all just get along?" Ruby pleaded, trying to prevent things from escalating any further.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Elsewhere...**

"Son of a bitch!" Dominic roared as he punched his desk.

"You still mad about the shirt?" Ian asked.

"For the hundredth time, I'm sorry my red sock fell into your whites!" Rudolph argued. "And it's not pink! It's lightish-red!"

"No-actually I'm still livid about that. But that's not the point!" Dominic growled. "That stinkin' animal ran out on us!"

"Isn't that what we wanted all along?" Ian asked.

"Not like _this_!" Dominic growled throwing his Scroll to the other two, allowing them to see the email that had gotten the Team leader so riled up.

**Subject: Jack Braxton (Team Placement)  
From: Headmaster Ozpin**

**Dominic Moss, **

**It has come to my attention that racial discrimination within your Team has been directed solely at Jack Braxton, in an attempt to make him leave Beacon Academy of his own volition. In light of this, Ruby Rose has requested a transfer of Jack Braxton from Team DIRJ to Team RWBY; a motion which has been taken into consideration after all prevalent paperwork has been completed and filed.**

**At 12:00 AM tomorrow, yourself, Ian Mallard, and Rudolph Hart are to all report to the Dueling Arena. Once there, this matter will be resolved with a three-on-one duel between yourselves and Jack Braxton. The stipulations of the match will be explained on-site, Glynda Goodwitch presiding.**

**Failure to arrive by the predetermined time, or refusal to participate, will result in yours, Ian Malard, and Rudolph Hart's expulsion from Beacon. In the event that this occurs, Jack Braxton will be transferred to Team RWBY without opposition. However, should Jack Braxton lose, then he will be asked to leave Beacon Academy, and promptly be deported to his homeland in Atlas in accordance with the Rule of Division.**

**Sincerely, Ozpin Greene**

"Huh. Looks pretty black and white to me," Rudolph stated with a huff as he read the email.

"So what do we do now?" Ian asked. "He'll be out of our hair, but we'll be a man down and the laughing stock of the entire school."

"What do you think?! We go down there, kick down their door, and teach that little red bitch, _and_ her pet, a lesson they won't ever forget!" Dominic growled.

"Wait a minute guys, we can't just go kicking down their door," Rudolph argued. "They drop the R-word and we are _screwed_!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Ian asked. "We can't just let this stand. If he transfers to that other Team, we'll NEVER get rid of him."

" . . . Then we just have to make sure we can't lose," Dominic said, a cruel smirk pulling at his features as he chuckled darkly.

"Ahhhh, I get where you're going with this," Ian said, chuckling soonafter.

"I don't," Rudolph stated, Dominic palming his face in response.

"Just grab the fucking crowbar."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Elsewhere...**

"Um... Shouldn't we help them?" Pyrrha asked as the sounds of yelling, screaming, and furniture being knocked over could be heard from across the hall.

"They'll be fine," Ren said from his bed as he read a book, Nora sawing logs like there was no tomorrow.

_*Snort* _"Pancakes!" Nora cried jolting awake momentarily before falling back asleep, her best friend reaching over and pulling the bedsheets back over her body with practiced ease.

"They're... probably just having a rough patch," Jaune stated as he tried to tune out the sound of Weiss' screaming. While on the one hand every fiber of his being was compelling him to kick down that door and save the damsel in distress like the knights in shining armor of old, the other was telling him that would be a _very _bad idea.

More on that later.

"I still can't believe what those three put Jack through," Pyrrha said with crossed arms. "I can't _stand_ people like them."

_*Snort* _"Beowolves!" Nora cried jolting awake once more, and then falling asleep again just as quickly.

"Well, I mean, this whole mess will be resolved tomorrow, so yeah..." Jaune said as he continued to tune out Weiss's screaming and the sound of bumping furniture. One time when he was twelve he heard _similar _noises from his elder sister's room, had stormed in to investigate, and... well... Let's just say things were very awkward at the breakfast table for a while after that.

_Veeery _awkward.

_*Snort* _"Guys! I just realized something!" Nora shouted as she once again jolted awake.

"Yes?" Ren asked casually.

"We could make a _killing _on the betting pools tomorrow!" the ginger-haired girl whooped. Somewhere, someone was bound to slip up, and given the nature of the duel, there was bound to be students betting on who would win, who would lose, and how soon or for how long. "Quick, gather your wallets! And check the couch cushions!"

"We don't have a couch," Ren stated.

"Nora!" Pyrrha cried aghast. "Faunus discrimination is a _very_ serious issue that has plagued mankind since before the Great War, and you would derive _profit _from it?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep! Just like in the Killing Bites!" Nora admitted without shame.

"That's only a myth," Ren stated as he turned a page.

_"Don't ruin this for me!" _Nora whispered into her friend's ear. _"__Momma needs pancakes!"_

"Nora. The pancakes at this school are free."

" . . . Thaaat's _perfect_! No one will suspect-" _*Snooooore*_

"Um... Should we be worried? About her health I mean," Jaune said pointing out Nora's sporadic sleeping habits.

"She'll be fine," Ren replied as he turned another page. It was only a _little _narcolepsy. Nothing to really worry about.

_*Snort* _"Two of them!" Nora cried as she jolted awake before falling asleep once more. As Ren once again tucked her back in, the noise from across the hall finally died down.

"Sounds like they've worked through their rough patch," Jaune said with a relaxed sigh, glad he hadn't walked in on anything weird.

Like that one time with his sister's room.

Where there was some guy with her.

And neither of them had clothes on.

And then his dad chased said guy out of their house with a buster sword that doubled as an anti-aircraft turret while his sister used _him _of all things to preserve her modesty.

Parents had to have an awkward talk with him after that incident.

_Reeeally _awkward.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**And here we have more world-building regarding the Great War, Professor Ozpin's penthouse office, and the initial founding of the Hunter Academies across the world of Remnant. Because there's so little to go on canonically, I've simply filled in the blanks with how I imagine things played out, and I hope they captivated your imaginations.**

**Beacon and Haven are the Hunter Academies for both the kingdoms of Vale and Mistral respectively; Sanctum is Mistral's premier Combat School as Signal is to Vale. Pharos and Watchtower are the Hunter Academies for the remaining two kingdoms, but I won't say WHICH yet because it isn't yet relevant to the plot. There's a 50/50 chance between right or wrong if you decide to guess, though if you DO guess over Review, I'm curious as to what REASON you came to the conclusion you did.  
**

**Anyway, be sure to drop a comment, and I might just write back.**


	8. Dirge's End

Suffice it to say, Team RWBY's Friday evening was a little on the rough side. Between keeping the room in one piece and making sure Weiss and Jack didn't _kill _one another, Ruby, Blake, and Yang had their work cut out for them. Thankfully they were able to bring the fighting to an end, and while Ruby spend the next half-hour assuring Weiss she was _not _going to contract rabies, Blake and Yang went off to the dining hall to bring _back _dinner. Last thing they needed first week in was to cause a scene.

Fortunately, retrieving enough food for five wasn't all that tough when the school provided food carts for that sort of thing.

"Sooo... Maybe I didn't _totally _think this through," Ruby admitted bashfully as her team plus one nibbled at the food that had been brought back. "But if we're all willing to come together and make this work, the next four years are going to be _great_! I just know it!"

"Yeah! We'll be able to do all _kinds _of missions with the extra manpower!" Yang added as her eyes roved up and down Jack's muscled arms.

"Jack's perfect night vision and enhanced senses _would _be a major boon for any nighttime operations," Blake saw fit to add. Jack simply rolled his jade-colored orbs at that as he continued to eat.

"I don't really have a choice in the matter, so I _guess _I'll learn to live with this," Weiss sighed. "But! If _that_-"

_"Weiss, remember what happened last time?" _Ruby whispered into her ear as she pointed at the girl's right index finger. It was wrapped in bandages.

"... If _he _is going to be living with us, I think we should lay down some ground rules," the heiress said after amending her statement.

"Uh, yeah, that's a given," Jack said between bites. "As long as you don't make me sleep outside, I'm fine with whatever you throw at me."

"We should probably ask Jaune how they handle things, since their room was co-ed for a full week and they have yet to cause a scene," Blake saw fit to comment as she bit into her fish fillet.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Somewhere between Friday night and the following morning, word got out of the duel that was set to take place between the members of Team DIRJ. As the news spread like wildfire, a line was swiftly drawn in the sand, and people began choosing sides.

On one side you had those that thought Humans and Faunus should peacefully co-exist, while on the other you had those who believed Faunus should either go extinct or just be shipped to Menagerie and never be allowed to leave. A large portion chose to remain neutral between the two factions, while those who didn't want to be associated with the other side chose to join the Pro-Human group. While the Pro-Human group easily outnumbered the Pro-Faunus, it at least proved the existence of those who were _trying _to coexist and get over past grievances.

While a large deal of the student body and faculty all made their way to the Dueling Arena, Team JNPR, the majority of Team RWBY, and Jack all made their way to the arena's locker room. Weiss had opted out of the pre-match pep-talk, instead committing her time to reserving seats as close to the action as she could find. Only the best for a Schnee after all, even if it _was _for something as asinine as an over-glorified slap-fight like this.

"Remember Jack, you're almost to the light at the end of the tunnel, so win this thing for Teeeam Ruby!" Ruby said reassuringly.

"What're we going to call ourselves with the J added in?" Jack asked.

"I'll think of something," the red-tipped girl replied.

"Good luck out there," Yang said patting him on the back.

"Fight wild!" Blake added with as much enthusiasm as her tone would allow, waving a little forest green triangle-shaped flag, the image of a Honey Badger emblazoned across its face.

"Please don't lose," Ren stated. "Nora bet all of my money on this fight."

"And _mine_!" Nora corrected. "Hundred-to-one odds, we'll be _rolling _in money! Yaaaaay, commerce!" the orange-haired girl cheered.

"Are the odds really that bad?" Jaune asked.

"Everyone assumes that just because its three-on-one against 'some dumb animal', that I'm already dead in the water," Jack huffed as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Here. Take this to the betting hall and put it all on me," he said handing a large wad of Lien to Nora, the girl grinning widely before taking the money and running off.

"Is that really necessary?" Pyrrha asked.

"Hey, if I'm going to fight for people's entertainment, I might as well actually get my _cut _this time," Jack cut in as they turned the corner.

_*GAAAAASP!* _"What on Remnant _happened_ here!?" Ruby cried as they all saw the state of Locker #356.

Tagged all over the door in bright red spray paint were phrases like **GO HOME!**, **FILTHY ANIMAL**, **FAUNUS GARBAGE**, and a number of _other _words that had Yang slapping her hand over Ruby's eyes. The electronic keypad for the lock was smashed into pieces, and the door had been pried open, now hanging on a single door hinge. As the door swung open with a low _***CREEEEEAK***_, right as Ruby was able to free her gaze, her eyes widened even _further_ with horror, mouth quivering and finger pointed as she failed to form coherent words. While Jack's leather armor still hung on the back wall, ruled out as unimportant, a number of metal parts spilled out of the bottom of the locker and onto the floor. All of them were bent, smashed, or warped beyond all recognition.

All with the exception of two axe blades, one smaller than the other.

"Who..." Ruby gaped as she fell to her knees, cupping one of the axe blades in her hands with the tender love and care that was usually reserved for small animals. Like birds. "Who could've done something like this?"

"Take a wild guess," Jack growled as he looked one of the parts over, before tossing it back into the pile.

"I only need _one_!" Yang growled as her eyes flashed to scarlet, the temperature around her rising slightly.

"Despicable..." Pyrrha said with a shake of her head.

"Why would those three _do _something like this?" Jaune asked in shock.

"What do you think? Its the same song and dance its _always _been. As soon as it looks like a Faunus will move up in the world, everyone and their grandma will make it their life's mission to kick 'em back down," Jack growled as he reached into his locker, securing a pauldron to his left shoulder.

"Wait, you're still going out there?" Jaune asked in shock as Jack started suiting up.

"Eeyup," Jack said without a care as he secured his other pauldron.

"But you're unarmed," Pyrrha said, concern in her voice.

"Doesn't matter," Jack said as he synched a greave to his left leg.

"So you're just going to fight bare-handed?" Yang asked as Jack drew out his chest guard.

"Don't you?" the Faunus asked raising an eye to her.

" . . . Fair point," the blond admitted with a shrug of her shoulders as Jack secured his right greave.

"Wait a minute, you don't even _need _to fight!" Ruby realized. "If we take this to Professor Ozpin, we can get those three expelled, or something."

"Thank you for the sentiment, but the real world doesn't work that way," Jack said as he synched his right vambrace to his arm. "It's a Faunus' word against three Humans'. We all know how that'll turn out. No one but _me _will get punished for wasting everyone's time."

"Jack, you can't honestly believe this offense will go _unpunished_, do you?" Pyrrha asked.

"Why not? It's been going on for _centuries_ and no-one's done a damn thing about it," the Faunus replied with a snarl as he secured his left vambrace to his arm. "Humans doing shit like this is why the White Fang was founded in the _first _place. If Humans _weren't _total assholes to anyone that was different from them, the White Fang wouldn't even need to exist in the _first _place. Besides..."

"Besides...?" Ruby asked as she tore her eyes away from the travesty piled on the floor in front of her.

"Now I can _really _cut lose, sit back, and _enjoy _myself," Jack said as he secured the last clamp on his chest guard, cracking his knuckles as an ominous red aura began to rise from his body. "I am going to enjoy this way more than I should. And I _like _it!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The three-on-one duel between Jack and his peers, initially meant to be done in _private _and settled quietly, had quickly been blown out of proportion as more and more people found out about it. And none of them felt like keeping their traps shut.

While initially only a few of the faculty were to be present to ensure the duel didn't go too far, the arena was now filled to the point it was becoming a fire hazard, with people being turned away at the door. Snack vendors from Vale had arrived via airship by the dozens and were rapidly selling out their wares entirely, while thousands of Lien rapidly changed hands in the backroom betting pools. Somewhere along the line the odds really _did _escalate into 100:1, so whoever _did _bet on Jack in any significant amount would be walking away with a _lot _of money that day.

Assuming the underdog managed to pull out a win.

The only thing stopping this whole spectacle from being _televised _was that news crews were expressly forbidden from stepping within Beacon's walls for the sake of the students' privacy. Of course, that didn't stop people from bringing their _own _recording devices. Seeing a 'Bloody Badger' fight hadn't been recorded since the last war, where there were only a few minutes of usable footage per cameraman before the blood and viscera sent them screaming back to base camp like little girls.

Most of these people hadn't even _seen _a Honey Badger Faunus before today, since most of them went into hiding after the last war to avoid the lynch mobs.

Because this wasn't a movie theater, and recording fights for future reference wasn't considered pirating, the faculty allowed this.

Down on the dueling stage itself were Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph, all looking_ very _sure of themselves as the time to high noon continued to tick down. The three locking and loading their weapons with great enthusiasm, the desire to see their teammate dead, or at the very least left bloody and broken, was very transparent. Moreso than the force field held in place to stop stray fire from hitting anyone in the stands.

Dominic's bayonet-tipped sniper rifle was being loaded with White (Concussion) Dust rounds, a high-impact form of Dust Modded ammo with great recoil, but even greater stopping power. Ian's shotgun/bat hybrid was loaded with White/Teal (Concussion/Wind) Dust cartridges in a 40:60 blend; While not possessing the same stopping power as all-White rounds, the increased speed and more-even spread of the buckshot made it one of the go-to types of Dust Blended ammo for close-quarters. Rudolph's quiver was loaded with thirty arrows possessing three types of heads; Red Dust arrowheads would release a gout of fire on impact, Yellow Dust arrowheads would explode, and the remaining type of arrowhead was a non-Dust broadhead hunting arrow, meant to cause maximum damage and gratuitous amounts of bleeding.

"Hmph. Looks like Jack's a no-show," Dominic said with a smug tone. "Hey Goodwitch, why don't you call the match so we can all go home, huh?"

"It is still five minutes until noon. I recommend you _not _count your chickens until they have hatched," Glynda said plainly, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of her nose.

_"Dumb animal'd probably eat them," _the green-clad leader said with a huff, but Glynda paid it no mind as she looked through her Scroll. Though the arena was circular, the stage was divided into the Blue Corner, and the Red Corner. The humans of Team DIRJ had come out of the Blue Corner and received a wave of applause ten minutes prior, so she was keeping her eyes on the Red Corner, where Jack would be coming out from the locker rooms.

At 11:56, Glynda caught movement on the Red Corner tunnel's camera.

For whatever reason, the lighting was _very _poor in those tunnels, so she wasn't even sure it was _him _for a few moments until the light from the Arena began to highlight the contours of his body. As he drew ever closer, the first detail she noticed was that he was not carrying any weapons on his person. While it wasn't the first time she'd seen someone choose to fight a duel bare-handed, in a three-on-one duel it meant he would have to close a very large gap to reach his opponents. What she noticed _after _that was the baleful crimson aura rising off his body, like an ominous fog hanging over a river of blood. Under normal circumstances, Aura was completely imperceptible to the naked eye apart from the person it originated from. However, _everyone _was able to see a person's Aura when the "pressure" it exuded on the surrounding atmosphere grew incredibly high.

But most of all, the thing that unsettled her the most was the grin that stretched across the Faunus' face beneath golden-amber eyes. Like the look of a hungry predator who had just had a juicy slab of meat waved in front of them, the black claws taking place of his fingernails with a flex of his hands only reinforced the sentiment. The way his canines sharpened didn't help matters either, since back during the Faunus Wars, Honey Badger Faunus would _literally _tear people's throats out with their teeth.

Made for a real gusher.

Also traumatized quite a few cameramen.

On the plus-side, there was no shortage of work for therapists after the last war.

_'Ozpin... I hope you know what you're doing...' _Glynda thought to herself as Jack continued to make his way toward the arena. _'Someone not even two decades old... has no right possessing a Spiritual Pressure that strong,' _she thought to herself. While not shudder-inducing for someone of _her _caliber, the chilling nature of his presence spilled out of the tunnel like a fell wind, Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph completely oblivious to the monster they'd unleashed upon themselves.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"What did we miss?" Ruby asked as she, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren joined Weiss in the stands.

"Nothing. The fighting hasn't even _started_ yet," the heiress sighed, sounding like she wanted this fight to be over already; though for all the wrong reasons. The heiress had been able to secure ringside seats directly across from the scoreboard, making them the best seats in the house. "It'll be noon in three minutes, so if Jack doesn't show up soon, we'll have a riot on our hands," she said taking notice of some of the rowdier members in the audience who were treating this like a sporting event. Hell, there were even foam fingers.

"IIIII'm _back_!" Nora whooped as she plopped down in the second seat from the right. In her arms was a large bucket of popped corn, and atop her head was a pink soda helmet. And where the heck did she find syrup-flavored soda?

"How were the betting pools?" Yang asked as she took the seat beside Ruby.

"It was _nuts _down there! I had to break _soooo _many legs to put Jack's money in," she replied.

"Please tell me you're _joking_," Weiss said with a horrified expression.

"She isn't joking," Ren stated as he took the seat on the far left. "Jack really _did _bet on himself."

"Not _that_! The _other _thing!" Weiss cried in outrage.

"They'll be _fine_," Nora replied as she stuffed her mouth with popcorn. "Now they can walk like _flamingos_."

_"Is that girl_ mental_?_" Weiss asked into Pyrrha's ear as she and Jaune sat down on her left.

_"I... am not entirely sure," _Pyrrha admitted.

"You going to share that popcorn?" Jaune asked as he took his seat, only for Nora to turn the bowl away from him defensively.

"I hope Jack will be alright down there. A lot of people want to see him get beaten," Blake said as she took the seat on the right.

"He'll be fiiine. Stop worrying," Ruby said off-handedly.

"That's the exact same thing you said before ditching me on that Nevermore," Weiss huffed.

" . . . In a good way?"

"In a _bad _way. A very bad way."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

One minute away from high noon, and Jack finally stepped out of the Red Corner tunnel. The auditorium fell into a hushed silence as he strode forward, his head held high with ears atop his head and monochrome-colored hair displayed openly. When his empty weapon clips became visible, slight murmurs began to spread through the arena. The spectators were becoming more and more restless as he approached the stage's steps, most of them on the edges of their seats and fidgeting in place.

"Good luck Jack!" Ruby shouted from the stands. Blake was on her right, Yang on her left, with Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, and Ren down the rest of the row. With the exception of Weiss, all of them were giving him thumbs up or nods of the head. Returning the gesture with a thumbs up of his own, he stepped through the stage's force field, the invisible wall rippling like water as he passed.

"Mr. Braxton. Might I ask why you are unarmed?" Glynda asked as she adjusted her glasses.

"Sometime between yesterday and this morning, someone cracked my locker open and smashed my weapons to pieces," Jack answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "I already have my suspicions as to who did it," and as he said this, he motioned to the three humans standing across from him off-handedly. "However, no amount of sabotage will make me lose this fight."

"Sabotage?" Glynda said in shock, the word causing murmurs to spread throughout the auditorium. The blond-haired woman looking through the school's security feeds, she eventually settled onto locker #356, and true to Jack's word the rocket-propelled weapon storage unit had been trashed. That the door had fallen off and was covered in racial slurs proved what he said to be correct. At least after she reversed the footage and caught the three red-handed, despite the masks they wore over their heads, as the time stamp on the video coincided with the time they left and returned to their room the previous day. "Have you alerted the headmaster about this?"

"It doesn't matter. Just means I have to get my hands dirty is all," Jack replied with a shrug, the humans of Team DIRJ feeling the pressure as many eyes fell onto them. They were hanging on Jack's every word and were starting to come to their own conclusions. A Hunter's weapon was often an expression of their innermost self, almost like art, and given an entire _war _was fought to stop the destruction of art, destroying a Hunter's weapon was considered a major taboo. "Now then, what are the rules of this fight? I'm itching to get started," he said as he cracked his knuckles.

Looking to the teacher's box behind the scoreboard, Glynda saw Ozpin nod his head, signalling her to continue with the match, sabotage regardless.

"Both parties have been made aware of why this duel is taking place. I will now explain the rules through which this duel will be conducted," she said as she tapped on her Scroll. The images of Team DIRJ appearing on-screen, the first three mugshots shifted to the left, while the fourth went to the right with a **vs **set between them. "This match will be a three-on-one duel with a one-hour time limit. However, as opposed to typical tournament-style duels, combatants will not be declared unable to fight when their Aura reaches the red. To reflect real-world conditions, you will each be given the option to continue fighting even after your Aura has been completely depleted. At your own discretion of course. If you lose consciousness or surrender, you will no longer be required to fight."

Suffice it to say, those in the stands were shocked at just how far the duel could possibly go. Fighting on _that _level within the institution was practically unheard of, since if someone chose to fight even _after _their Aura was depleted, it'd mean they would become completely susceptible to mortal injury. Contrary to popular belief, Aura did not make you invincible. It only mitigated the damage one's body would experience in a fight, and the amount of Aura expended in defense was directly proportional to the force applied against it, or how much energy you committed _to _it.

"If at all possible, I would ask that you _avoid _any unnecessary killing," she stated. At the moment she said _that_, her eyes had fallen squarely on Jack, the same thought going through the heads of most in the arena.

"Up yours, Good_bitch_," Jack said sarcastically as he proceeded to flip her the bird, much to everyone's shock.

At the less-than-endearing nickname for her, coupled with the blatant sign of disrespect, Glynda was _about _to reprimand him before realizing just how what she said had sounded out loud. Turning her head to the teacher's box, the shake of their heads in her direction told her she wasn't the _only _one to realize that. It was hard enough for Faunus to trust Humans, given they had been oppressed by the opposing species for _centuries_ well into the modern day. The fact that she, a trained _Huntress _of all people, decided to act in such a way out in the open was doing little to help mend the divide. Jack hadn't even been born until _after _the Faunus Wars, yet she just _assumed_ he would kill on a whim simply because he was the same breed as those who_ did _during the last war.

Dick move, Glynda. Dick move.

"In the event one party or another is incapable of voicing their surrender..." she said trying to get back on track before she started a full-blown race war, "I will call the match myself and intervene if necessary. Am I understood?" she asked, receiving nods of approval from all involved. "The match will begin in thirty seconds," she said pressing a button on her scroll, a timer counting down the seconds as she stepped off the stage.

**0:26**

"A two-on-one-match? No problem," Jack said confidently as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

**0:21**

"Hey dumbass, last I checked there were _three _of us over here!" Dominic said in a snarky tone.

**0:16**

"Really? Well then my eyes must be deceiving me," Jack admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

**0:12**

"Oh yeah? And why's that?" Ian asked.

**0:08**

"Hmhmhmh. Because..." Jack said making a show of raising his hands in a loose brawler's stance, his right foot shifting back as he stopped bouncing back in place.

**Cue Red vs Blue Season 10 OST - Land of Enemies**

**_*BRRRRRRRRRRRR!*_**

The moment the timer went off, a starting horn sounded and Jack was off like a shot. Leaving Ian and Rudolph in his dust, Dominic raised his bayonet to intercept only for Jack to lean right and smack it aside with his left hand. Not even a moment later and Jack's shoe size was visible through the bushy-haired human's back as Jack delivered a brutal jump kick. Bouncing against the force field with an echoing **_*THUD*_**, before his feet could even hit the ground Jack had wrapped a hand around Dominic's neck before heaving him overhead and into the ground with a deafening **_*CRASH*_**, a massive cloud of dust kicked up from the impact.

"I only count _two _dead monkeys," Jack said finishing his statement. The dust clearing a few seconds later revealed Dominic to be lying back-down in a him-shaped crater after the ass-beating he'd just gotten, eyes wide and staring at the ceiling and limbs twitching.

All in all he looked like he got hit by a bus.

"We're gonna die aren't we?" Rudolph asked with a nervous gulp. A part of him had _told _him not to ostracize Jack the way he had, but peer pressure got to him and well... the rest was going to be history within the next half hour.

"Fuck this! I ain't going down without a fight!" Ian shouted as he ran at his opponent, screaming like a crazy person as he raised his bat-gun over his head. Jack in response had an uncaring look on his face as the dark-skinned teen approached, weapon ready in an overhead strike. When the weapon was brought down, instead of meeting the Faunus' head, it instead landed in Jack's awaiting palm, clawed fingers soon clamping around the reinforced guard. "Rrgh! Let go dammit!" Ian swore as he tried to wrench the weapon free with both hands, only to receive a straight to the face that had him doing the impression of a bobble-head. Ian's grip on the weapon faltering, Jack was more than happy to take it off his hands. Twirling it, his fingers found home around the ergonomic grip, and bringing it up in an underhanded swing, a pull of the trigger let out a loud **_*CRAK* _**that sent the blunted end of the bat flying upward.

"OOOOOOOH!" the entirety of the male audience winched as the bat/gun came up right between the human's legs, actually lifting him off of his feet. Left staggering and cupping his balls instead of his face, once he blinked through the pain, he was able to see that Jack had now leveled the weapon right at his chest. Another **_*CRAK* _**and he was sent flying backwards, skidding to a stop next to his teammate, still clutching his balls.

"So... contextually speaking," Jack asked as he tossed aside the weapon. "How fucked are you?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Whoa, did you see that!?" Ruby gaped in shock at what had occurred only one minute in.

"How could I have _missed_ that?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Somehow... I expected more out of those three," Yang said as Rudolph notched an arrow, beads of sweat rolling down his temple as the beast that took down two of his team in short order strode towards him.

"Big money big money big money big money big money," Nora chanted as Jack leaned away from the first arrow, before going on to lean around the _other _arrows Rudolph sent his way, each one impacting the barrier with a gout of flame.

"Stand your ground and fight!" Weiss shouted as Rudolph turned tail and ran after his sixth arrow spent. It wasn't so much because the teen's opponent was a Faunus, but rather because running around the stage like a scared toddler was _not _befitting a Huntsmen-in-training.

"Big money big money big money big money big money," Nora chanted as Rudolph continued to flee like a scared child, using an app on her Scroll to make a **_*Cha-Ching* _**noise when the Faunus stepped on the face of the downed Dominic right as he was about to recover.

"I will admit, I _do _find this strangely hilarious," Ren admitted as Rudolph fired an arrow at Jack's feet which exploded. However, the Faunus back flipped away from the explosion at the last second, before dashing up to the archer and slugging him in the face, sending him rolling across the ground.

"The scores are looking pretty good," Ruby said as she looked up to the scoreboard. At the moment Jack was in the lead with a whopping **95%** remaining, that rush attack on Dominic having left him with **79%**, Ian being the words off with **65%** after that blitz attack on his person, with Rudolph being the best off at **85%** after taking a hard one to the face.

"Guess this one's in the bag then," Yang said with a confident grin on her face as she leaned back and laced her fingers behind her head.

"Wait, it looks like Dominic's about to get up," Pyrrha spoke up as the camouflage-teen was able to roll his way out of the crater. Coughing and wheezing on his hands and knees, the bushy-haired teen raised a hateful look towards the Faunus terrorizing his still-standing teammate.

"It looks like he's reaching for something," Jaune said as Dominic pulled a cylindrical object from his pocket, a wicked smirk pulling at his face.

"JACK!" Blake shouted at the top of her voice as she realized just what had been thrown at him. "DODGE!"

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"Dodge what-" Jack said before something bounced to a stop against his foot. Leaping away with years of instinct guiding his lunge, he was unable to completely escape the blast as a flash-bang grenade went off at his feet. "Dammit Blake! That's more distracting than helpful!" the Faunus cried as he held his ears.

"He's distracted! Shoot him!" Dominic shouted as he took a knee and opened fire. At the moment the high-impact round struck Jack in the chest and sent him reeling backwards, Rudolph was able to gain his composure and fired a Yellow Dust arrowhead at the Faunus, kicking up a cloud of dust and once again throwing him back. Only Ian was unable to participate in the blitz, on account of his acting balls, but disoriented from the flash-bang grenade, Jack was helpless as he was herded towards the edge of the arena.

Explosions and fire and dust kicked up in the two's wake, the majority of the audience was whooping and hollering with unbridled restraint as Jack's Aura continued to drop. Ruby was biting her fingernails as the hail of fire showed no sign of stopping, the others showing their own unease, but Weiss was surprisingly _neutral _about all this. As Jack's Aura neared the halfway mark, he suddenly burst through the cloud of dust and ran left. Like something out of an action movie, Jack bobbed and weaved between arrows and gunfire, the rounds and arrows exploding against the force field walls, though the spectators still recoiled.

Stopping behind the still-stunned Ian whose loins felt like they'd been struck with a sledgehammer, the two's firing ceased as Jack used their ailing teammate as a meatshield. Eyes darting to and fro from behind his cover, Jack began pushing the teen forward, Dominic holding his ground while Rudolph tried to strafe right and get a clear shot. Right as the archer notched another arrow, Jack rolled out from behind his meatshield and grabbed the bat/gun he'd discarded a couple minutes before. Placing the end of the barrel right in its owner's face, Ian's face paled slightly as the trigger was pulled, and he was sent flying end-over-end from the shotgun blast.

If his Aura hadn't been there to take the brunt of the shot, his head would've been pulped like a ripe melon.

Dominic, moments away from putting one through the back of the Faunu's skull, had his eyes widening in surprise as Jack rounded on him and chucked the bat/gun at him like a javelin. The stock of the weapon striking him clean on the nose full-force, the sniper was sent stumbling backward before his elbow struck the ground, his grip on the trigger tightening with the impact. A round sent flying with a loud **_*BANG* _**was all the warning Rudolph got before the round struck him in the shoulder, fingers loosening from his notched arrow. Moments later and a loud squealing not unlike that of a struck pig pierced the arena air as Ian got an arrow to the butt, both genders of the audience winching at the teen's misfortune.

The unprecedented string of coincidences had managed to bring a temporary end to the fighting, each person down on the stage settling into their own "corner" as they tried to recover from the hits they took.

As a Faunus with enhanced senses, Jack was especially-vulnerable to bright lights and loud noises, something a flash-bang grenade had with spades. While his Aura had absorbed most of the damage from the blitzing he got, his ears were still ringing, but at the least he had preserved his sight by guarding at the last moment. For Dominic, while that 'lucky' throw hadn't broken his nose, it still _felt _like it had, proving once again that Aura was not an absolute defense. Rudolph, having taken a misfire to his shoulder, was left rubbing his right shoulder from the shot he'd taken, and wouldn't be firing another arrow again until the aching stopped. Ian was the worst-off of the bunch, having been punched in the face, kicked in the nuts, shotgun'd in the chest, shotgun'd in the _face _minutes later, and to top it off he had an arrow in his butt. If his Aura hadn't been up he would've been skewered like a stuck pig.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"I... don't believe what I just saw," Pyrrha said with a dropped jaw as she tried to process what had just happened. Something she shared in common with most of the audience, who had fallen silent at the domino effect they had borne witness to.

"You're not the only one," Jaune said equally dumbstruck if not moreso. Jack had obviously aimed for Dominic because with the rifle he was a more-pressing threat, but that one attack going on to put the other two down large chunks of Aura had once again leveled the playing field.

_"I think he _planned_ for that to happen,"_ Nora whispered as though there were some big conspiracy behind it.

"Nora. How could he have _possibly _planned that?" Ren asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because Jack's a _beast_!" Nora said with a wide grin. **_*SLURRRP*_**

"Jack may've turned things around, but he's still going up against three guys, and that last barrage took a lot out of him," Yang said as she bounced her heel, his Aura being at the halfway mark **50%** putting her incredibly on-edge.

"If this keeps up, he may actually _lose_," Blake said pensively as she looked up at the scoreboard. That hit to the face had only dropped Dominc's Aura down another five-percent to **74**%, Rudolph had taken a significantly larger hit to the shoulder dropping his Aura down to **60%**, and Ian having been shot in the face with his own gun and again in the ass by his own teammate left him at a paltry **20%**.

"We've gotta _do _something!" Yang asserted.

"Like what?" Blake questioned. It wasn't like they could go down and _help _him.

"I don't know... Light a _fire _under him, make him angry, _anything_!" Yang said as she racked her brain, a light bulb going off over Ruby's head a moment later causing her to jump from her seat.

"JAAAAAACK!" Ruby shouted at the top of her lungs, the slight tilt of his head telling her she'd gotten his attention. "YESTERDAY WHEN I WENT BY YOUR ROOM..." she shouted before inhaling deeply. "THOSE GUYS CALLED YOUR MOM A-

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"Oh my," Ozpin said with a surprised tone as Ruby's final word caused the entire arena to go silent as a graveyard. Before there had been muttering as everyone tried to figure out how _that _had just happened, but _now_ you could hear a pin drop.

_"Ruby! Where did you learn that word?!" _

"Insulting their opponent's mother behind his back. Such poor form," Port stated from his own seat as he shook his head.

_"I learned it from Andy!" _Ruby cried as her sister shook her for information.

"Hm, yes, it's a historically-known fact that insulting one's mother guarantees the unbridled wrath of the child-in-question," Oobleck stated as he sipped his coffee from his thermos.

_"I told you not to hang around that guy! He's a bad seed! A bad seed!"_

"Even if none of them _actually _said that, Jack has absolutely no reason to doubt Ruby's words," Ozpin added.

_"I'm not a little kid, Yang!"_

"Mayhaps we should intervene?" Oobleck queried. "Prevent Jack from disemboweling his opponents like his kind were wont to do during the last war?"

"Nay, for it is a duel between men, and it is _here _that their karma shall come around full-circle," Port stated bombastically.

"I'll let the infirmary know to open up three beds," Ozpin said as he began typing on his scroll.

"May the Goddess of Light guide their souls to the next world," Oobleck said in prayer as he traced a circle over his sternum, followed by six feather-like lines across his chest.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**Cue Metal Gear Rising OST - Jack the Ripper  
**

"They... WHAAAAT!?" Jack roared as his head snapped up, anger, and many _other _negative emotions, written all over his face. Teeth gnashing and eyes narrowed angrily, the once golden-amber pools of his eyes had bled into a baleful red, pupils elongating into cat-like slits as his canines began to lengthen. This was following the ominous red steam-like aura rising off his body, like a haze hanging over a river of blood.

"Dominic, WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Rudolph cried as he fisted Dominic's shirt and shook him back and forth, whereas Ian was frozen with fear.

"Jack, don't listen to that bitch! She's lying to you!" Dominic said shoving his own teammate away, trying to save his own ass as his opponent's visage turned more and more murderous by the second.

"OH SO NOW MY MOM'S A _BITCH_, EEEEEEEH!?" Jack roared angrily, clearly seeing nothing but red as he strode towards his opponents. "You know..." Jack said as he tried to reign in his emotions. "I've taken a _looooot_ of shit from you three assholes in the past week..." The bulging vein in his forehead showed it wasn't working. "But then you decide to bring my _mother _into this!" at this the haze around his body began to intensify, the veins across the backs of his hands beginning to bulge as well. "You damn dirty Humans just _can't _keep your mouths shut, _can_ you?!"

"Jack wait a minute-" Dominic pleaded, trying to say he did _not _say what Ruby said he'd said.

"I'm going to give you one chance, just _one_, to walk away in one piece," Jack said as his soon-to-be-ex-leader's words fell on deaf ears. "Otherwise... I can't be held responsible for what I might do to you."

"Y-Y-Y-You don't scare me!" Rudolph said as he tried to notch an arrow, only for a lance of pain to tear through the shoulder he'd been shot in moments before

"Its three-on-one and you're half-dead! We're _not _running!" Dominic said as he leveled his rifle at the Faunus. Of course the bravado of that statement was ruined by the fact that Ian was still trying to pull an arrow out of his butt.

"Hrrrrrrrrrrrr..." Ian whimpered before finally ripping the arrow out of his butt, biting back a cry of pain as he picked up his weapon.

"I see. So the three of you are deciding to stay and fight," Jack said seeing that none of them had left. "How _gutless_."

"Gutless? How is staying to fight gutless!?" Dominic shouted back.

"Because..." Jack said as the pillar of Aura coming off his body intensified. "Suicide is the _cowards_ way out..." he said ominously. Inhaling deeply through his nose, the Faunus let out a loud- **"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"** -that seemed to shake the very air, the appearance of his Aura changing from a column of steam into a pyre of transparent red-edged flame. As cracks spread across the ground and his bellowing continued, his gauge on the scoreboard began to glitch out in response to the sudden spike in Spiritual Pressure. The ominous pressure rolling off the enraged Faunus in waves and cowing the three Humans where they stood, Jack's muscles began to bulge across his frame. As his baggy clothes began to fill out, the once-tranquil vine-like patterns on his armor made a startling shift into crowns of thorns, the hue of red they'd taken much like that of freshly-spilled blood. As the swelling of his chest caused the leather to strain, a rather _ominous _design began to bleed its way onto the armor; a blood-colored skull whose gaze seemed to pierce their very souls, while instead of teeth it instead had a clenched right fist instead of teeth.

"What... What on Remnant _are _you?!" Ian cried in the wake of Jack's sudden transformation. Leveling his weapon at the Faunus, the dark-skinned teen pulled the trigger, only for the pellets of buckshot to stop short.

"Heh... What am I?" Jack asked as the buckshot held back by his aura fell to the ground. "I'm the monster you made me. You _and _your kind! **Now DIE!**" he roared as he shot off, the ground at his feet exploding as he rushed right at the shotgun-wielder. Right arm drawn back as he approached, Ian brought his shotgun up to block the attack, only for the enraged Faunus' fist to tear through his weapon like it were tinfoil. Jack's fist found home in the Human's face seconds later, the loud **_*BAM* _**that echoed through the arena causing the audience to winch as Ian was sent flying backwards, blood, spittle, and teeth flying out of his mouth as he was sent sailing right out of the dueling stage.

"HRAAAAAAAAH!" Rudolph cried as he shook off his terrified stupor, splitting his bow into its composite blades and rushing at his opponent. The Faunus regarded his opponent lazily as he approached, blades held high as he jumped into a flying lunge. However before Rudolph could bring his blades down, Jack suddenly swung his right leg around in a reverse roundhouse kick, a sickening **_*CRUNCH* _**echoing through the air as he struck the side of his opponent's legs, his opponent sent spiraling sideways like a pinwheel. Using the momentum from his kick, Jack delivered a brutal left straight to his opponent's gut with a loud **_*WHAM* _**that the people in the front row could almost _feel_. Blood and spittle flying out of his mouth, the archer tumbled across the ground like a ragdoll before coming to a stop, both his legs bent horrendously out of shape at the knee.

"You're... YOU'RE A MONSTER!" Dominic cried as the true weight of Jack's unbridled rage finally bore down upon him.

"That's right. I _am _a monster," Jack confessed without an ounce of shame. "The monster that you, your friends, your entire _race_ made me! And now..." he said as he strode towards the quivering human. "I'm going to break you. Like a kit-kat bar."

"E-Eat this!" Dominic said as he drew another grenade from his belt, this one a frag grenade. Pulling the pin with his teeth, he chucked the spherical bomb at his opponent, who caught it like it were a softball.

"One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand," Jack proceeded to count down, Dominic realizing what was going on and had turned tail to run. "Four one-thousand," he said as he returned it back to sender.

The grenade bouncing painfully off of the sniper's spine, it went off a second later and sent him, and his rifle, flying. Thrown off his feet and landing flat on his face, his body covered in soot, Dominic looked over his shoulder to see Jack striding towards him, ominously cracking his knuckles and sending a menacing grin his way. His rifle thrown halfway across the stage, the Human decided it was better to make a tactical retreat. Live to fight another day.

However, before he could get very far, a hand clamped itself around his ankle before hoisting him off his feet. Lifted in the air, the sniper was momentarily airborne before Jack punched the black (soot) right off of him. Sent tumbling once again across the arena, Dominic's eyes widened as he landed right in front of his sniper rifle. However, before he could reach out to take it, Jack was suddenly in front of him in a red blur, and had stomped his foot down on top of the extended hand with a loud **_*CRUNCH*_**.

"You know..." Jack said as he clamped his left hand around Dominic's face, claws digging into his head as he hoisted him off his feet. "A bullet isn't needed to pierce the human body. Here, let me show you."

Raising him so his feet weren't even touching the ground anymore, Dominic's eyes filled with panic as Jack drew back his right arm. Clawing at the hand wrapped around his face and lashing out with as many kicks as he could land, so desperate was he to escape the iron grip of his opponent that he failed to notice the extension of a single clawed finger on Jack's hand. When all attempts failed, Dominic tried to cry out and voice his surrender so he'd escape, but Jack's hand was wrapped so tightly around his face all that came out were stifled murmurs. Jack then cupped his right hand to his ear, looking around a moment before shrugging his shoulder, making a _show _of not having heard anything.

Reeling his right arm back, Jack then drove his clawed finger into his opponent's chest right below the left collarbone, past his second knuckle, with a wet, bloody **_*SQUELCH*_**. Dominic's eyes widened and his legs went straight at the sudden impalement, his struggling intensified as the Faunus proceeded to "twist the knife" as it were. His Aura falling down to only a single percentile, Jack ripped his finger free, a loud cry leaving the Human's lips as he was allowed to fall to the floor. Still screaming even as he clutched his chest, Jack raised his foot before bringing it down on the bushy-haired teen's right leg with a sickening **_*CRUNCH*_**, breaking it at the shin bone and completely depleting his Aura.

"Yeeeeeeeees~" someone from the audience cried in almost orgasmic bliss.

That very same cry snapped Glynda out of her stupor, prompting her to take to the stage as Jack raised his foot once more, intent on breaking the _other _leg. Whipping out her riding crop, with a burst of her Aura a purple ripple appeared in the air that forced Jack to skid backwards. Clawed toes digging into the ground and arresting his momentum, Jack's eyes snapped up as Glynda placed herself between Jack and his opponent, whose cries were a mix of bloody wailing and pathetic whimpering.

Hateful red boring into light green, the two's gaze were transfixed. The seconds seeming to drag on for an eternity, Glynda's grip on her riding crop tightened, ready for anything. Jack, raising his blood-stained digit, looked ready to finish the job. However, his arm stopped, and after a few moments he let it fall to his side, eyes falling shut. Letting out a heavy sigh, the heavy aura around his body evaporated, and when his eyes opened once more they had returned to their original soothing jade. As the crowns of thorns on his arms and legs turned back to rings of vines, and the skull-like emblem on his chest bled out of sight, the bulging veins across his body receded back into his skin, and with a slumping of his shoulders Jack's muscles began to "deflate".

"Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph are no longer able to continue," Glynda announced as the grip on her riding crop slackened, albeit only slightly. "The winner is Jack Braxton."

Normally when a duel came to an end there was applause, but instead there was only silence. As men in white scrubs rushed into the room from the Blue Corner, carefully moving the three beaten humans onto gurneys and taking them away, Jack raised his gaze to the audience. Those who fell under his gaze pressed their backs against their seats, doing everything in their power to avoid eye contact, some freezing in place hoping they wouldn't be noticed. In the wake of that terrifying display, everyone had been stunned into silence, and apart from the hushed breathing you could probably hear a pin drop.

"Nora," Jack said a minute later, breaking the silence.

"YES SIR?" Nora cried, a little louder than necessary, her face incredibly flushed for some reason.

"Would you mind collecting my winnings for me?" he asked, a very large number of jaws dropping at that request.

"Okey dokey!" the orange-haired girl replied as she rose from her seat. "Also, I'm sure your mother was a _very _classy lady. Not at _all _what those three guys said about her."

"Yeah..." Jack replied as he left the stage. _"She was one of a kind."_

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

" . . . Ruby."

"Yeah sis?"

"I think I have another rule for the board."

"And what might that be?"

"Never, _e__ver_, talk about his mom."

"Unless you have a death wish," Blake saw fit to chime in. Yang's hair was _her _"Rage Button". Jack's mom was his.

"Ruby..." Weiss spoke up as she found her voice. "Are you _sure _you want someone like that to join our Team?"

" . . . Yes. I'm sure," Ruby answered after a few moments.

"Finally, you see things _my_... WHAT?!" the heiress asked in shock. "Are you in_sane_!?"

"Weiss, I'll be the first to admit, what he did down there... kinda scared me," Ruby admitted as she gripped her arm rests. "But..." she said taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Those three kinda had it coming. They may not've said _the _word that I said they said, but they still said some _really _horrible things about him and his mother behind his back."

"Yeah, plus they made him sleep outside for a week," Yang chimed in. "And hey, at least he knew when to stop. If something like that happened to _me_... I don't know _what _I'd do," she said with a shrug of her shoulder. All her life she'd lived as a Human, part of the majority and never subject to racial discrimination, so she could never claim to understand just how far some Faunus could be pushed.

And that thing about his mom had pushed Jack right over the deep end.

" . . . Alright, but if he comes anywhere _near _me, all bets are off," Weiss said adamantly.

"_Speaking _of bets," Blake cut in. "Who here besides Nora and Jack bet money on that fight?"

Ren raised his hand from the elbow, mainly because Nora had bet some of _his _money on the fight. Jaune drummed his fingers on his armrest before laughing weakly and raising _his _arm as well, guilty as charged. Yang and Blake were the last to raise their arms, meaning that Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha were the only ones who _hadn't_. Ruby didn't know where the betting pool _was_, Weiss had no _need _to gamble, and Pyrrha opted out of it purely on principle.

"Does this make us bad people?" Jaune asked nervously.

"I... um..." Pyrrha mumbled, trying to find the words.

"I don't think so," Nora said with a grin as she walked back up to them, a trio of envelopes stuffed with lien tucked under her arm. And they were _biiiiiiig._

"Nora. How much money is in those?" Ren asked.

"This much," Nora said shrugging the arm she had the money tucked under.

"You didn't raise any fingers."

"That's how much there iiiiis."

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

Back in the changing room, as Jack tossed the last of his armor pieces into the pile in front of him, he let out a heavy sigh as he hung his head.

"Way to lose your cool, Jack. What would Master Luca say if he saw you now?"

"Well," Yang spoke up as she came up behind him, the Faunus jumping in his seat before realizing who it was. "I don't know who this Luca guy is, but I think he'd understand those three kinda deserved it. And hey, you put on a great show. Bet a _looot _of people pissed away a bunch of money thinking you'd lose."

"Yang... I'm surprised you're even _talking_ to me after you saw my ugly side."

"At least you knew when to stop," the blond said as she sat down beside him. "For a minute I thought you'd try to finish the guy off. No offense."

"Heh. None taken," Jack replied before winching. "Ngh. Hurts to laugh."

"Jack, are you okay?" Ruby asked as she stepped around the corner.

"I'm fine. Been through worse," Jack admitted.

"Jack, listen... that thing that I said that they said about your mom..." Ruby said nervously.

"I know."

"They didn't- Wait, you _know_?" the red-headed girl asked in shock.

"Yep."

"Then why'd you flip out like that if you knew they _didn't _call your mom a... you know?"

"I dunno," Jack said with a shake of his head. "Maybe I just needed an excuse to get angry. To let out the devil inside."

"Oh..." Ruby replied, a long silence stretching out between them.

"So..." Jack said breaking the tension. "After seeing all that... do you still want me in your team?"

"Like I told Weiss. Sure, I was a little bit scared of you back there, but I know you'd never do anything to hurt me," Ruby said with a smile, before she extended her hand to him. "Welcome to Team Ruby."

" . . . Happy to be here," Jack replied as he took her smaller hand in his own.

"Congratulations big guy! Now you're part of the _winning _team," she said playfully slapping his back with a loud **_*CLAP*_**.

"Yang!" Ruby cried as Jack visibly cringed, teeth clenched and eyes watering in a pained expression.

"Whoops," Yang blurted at her blunder. "Prooobably shouldn't have done that."

_"Ya think?" _Jack said through clenched teeth as he tried not to fall off the bench.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**The initial draft of the fight was going to be more one-sided in Jack's favor, but I decided to level the playing field a bit, making the DIR of Dirge stronger (and more competent) than initially portrayed. The flash-bang grenade was also a last-minute addition, but thinking it over, it _would _make sense that it'd make for a good Anti-Faunus weapon.  
**

**Based on the musical Cue towards the end of the fight, _another __one of_ the fictional characters that Jack is inspired by should be readily apparent; and I'm not talking the one with the high-frequency katana. In the same way that Yang draws inspiration from more than one fairy tale character (Goldilocks, some story about a guy who got his head lopped off, and I suspect the "Golden Dragon of the Center" from Chinese mythology), so too does Jack.  
**

**When it comes to aesthetics of his Aura, when it rolls off his body like "steam", its like when Raiden goes all 'Jack the Ripper' on Monsoon in Metal Gear Rising. Not necessarily an aesthetic, but the loud bellow he let out (the one in Bold), best I can describe it is that it sounds like Piccolo when he powered up against Android 17 in TeamFourStar's DBZ Abridged episode 46. When his Aura becomes like a "flame", its meant to strongly resemble Goku's Kaio-Ken, which should give you some idea as to the nature of his Semblance.  
**

**Anyone who's watched DBZ _knows _what Yang's Semblance is clearly inspired by. We're all thinking it. Hell, the song I Burn LITERALLY has the words "Super Saiyan" in the lyrics, I kid you not.  
**

**Lastly, the symbol that appears on his chest guard is the Blood Pack insignia from Mass Effect (only in red atop brown armor), and its significance will be explained later on. In the initial draft, that was going to simply be painted onto his armor before the match showing he meant business, but having his armor's design shift in response to Aura seemed better in the narrative. The vine-like designs on his greaves and vambraces changing into crowns of thorns in response to Aura was a last-minute addition, but I think it went pretty well with the theme.  
**

**With this AN concluded, I'm hoping you'll leave a Review, tell me your thoughts, any suggestions for how I should make this story better. While baseless flames will be ignored, I DO appreciate constructive criticism, so if you think there are areas I can improve in, or character portrayals I could improve with, I'm willing to listen. I'm REALLY hoping for some comments that aren't two-worded, since I pretty much re-wrote this entire chapter from the initial draft to make it better.  
**


	9. Victory Dinner

As you can probably imagine, there were a _lot _of disappointed spectators once the fight had been concluded. Once people began trickling out of the arena, a great deal of money changed hands at the betting pools, and those who bet on the Blue Corner cursed Jack's name as all of their money was handed over to those who bet on the Red. The ones who _did _bet on the Red made out like bandits, especially the risk-takers.

As soon as the fighting came to an end, the Interweb was practically _flooded _with videos of the 'Bloody Badger Brawl'. While some caught onto the fact that Jack had been sabotaged but _still_ managed to win, there were those who were so pig-headed as to think that Jack had doped himself up on performance enhancers, unable to believe he would've been able to win that fight otherwise. The quality of the videos varied greatly, but what consistently appeared was that a single, rather _personal _piece of dialogue, was all it had taken to put Jack on the warpath after sending him careening off the deep end.

Or as some put in the Comments section, **Instant Murder Boner!**

"Hey Yang. Thanks for letting me stash my stuff in your locker," Jack said as he and Team RWBY returned to the dorms.

"No problem. I don't really keep all that much in there anyway," the blond replied as she interlaced her fingers behind her head.

"The people seem to be giving us a wide berth," Blake saw fit to add in, the crowds parting in their wake. Ten feet at the least, while some bolted altogether like scared rabbits. The Rabbit Faunus on the other hand went completely still, like an animal hoping to remain hidden from a predator's whose vision was based on movement.

"What do you expect? Jack practically _murdered _those three. In broad daylight!" Weiss stated.

"_Practically_. The key word is '_practically'_," Jack asserted. "Did I want to rip out their insides and wear them as sweat pants? Yes. Did I carry through with it? No."

"So... What are you going to do now? Pyrrha saw fit to ask.

"Probably raid my old room for furniture."

"Yaaaaay, looting!" Nora cheered, skipping along with a large envelope filled with money hugged to her chest.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

Suffice it to say, Dominic, Ian, and Rudolph would not be leaving the infirmary any time soon. As such, Jack and Yang were met with little (read: no) opposition when it came time for Jack to collect his meager belongings. Outside his school uniforms and textbooks, the only material possessions he had were a few changes of street clothes, some pajamas, and some maintenance supplies. The bestiary on Grimm could not be saved, and his weapons were trashed to the supplies were a moot point.

Returning to the room a few minutes later, Jack's belonging were placed on the rug in the middle of the room until a place for them could be found.

"Okay, Jack, I just got the call from Professor Ozpin. Your transfer to Team RWBY is now com_pletely_ official," Ruby said with a swing of her arm.

"Huh. That was fast," Jack admitted.

"Eeyup. Now, without further ado, I give you the grand tour for the room of Teeeeam Ruby," the red-hooded girl said enthusiastically. "Plus one," she tallied on before zipping over to the left side of the room. "Here we've got the walk-in closet," she said leading him into said closet, which was large enough for four people to stand in shoulder-to-shoulder, yet still have a little elbow room. "It'll be a little tricky, but I'm sure we can store for five."

"That, or I can just store my clothes under my bed," Jack said with a shrug.

"That works too," Ruby said before zipping out the door to the one on the opposite wall. "Here we've got the bathroom, and it is _really _big," she said opening the door, the slight scent of flowers wafting out of the room as they entered.

More than twice the size of the closet, but still smaller than the main room, the bathroom for Team RWBY's room was an impressive sight indeed. The right wall was dominated by a large mirror and a pair of sinks, colorful toothbrushes and multiple toothpastes scattered about, as well as a number of beauty products. Past that behind a small partition was the toilet, and atop a small shelf within arm's reach were replacement rolls of toilet paper so no one would ever become "stranded". In the back left corner of the bathroom was a large walk-in shower, the bucket hanging from the shower head containing numerous shampoos and conditioners, while the bench directly across from it looked like it could seat for two; three if they all squeezed in. In the remaining corner of the bathroom was a _very _large bath tub, a small window just out of arm's reach available to let out some of the steam that was sure to accumulate from the shower.

"Any idea why the bathtub and showers are so big?" Jack said bringing up the obvious question.

"Well, we're all going to be teammates for the next four years. Maybe we're expected to _share_?" Ruby guessed with a shrug of her shoulders. The shower looked like it could house two, maybe three people, while the tub looked like it could actually house _four_. Five if you really pushed it.

"I certainly wouldn't mind," Yang cut in, not so subtly eyeing Jack up and down.

"Yang, eyes up here. Eyes, up, _here_!" Jack asserted, drawing the blonde's gaze above his neckline.

"Just checking out the merchandise is all," Yang replied with a smile. After seeing the way his muscles had flexed during that fight, she was even more curious than ever to see what he was hiding under those baggy clothes.

"Yang, stop acting like a creeper," Ruby pouted as she led them out of the bathroom. "Here we have the main room. Over there we've got everyone's stuff," she said pointing to the room's left wall, where a pile of crates and boxes was partially obscuring a painting of the Foreverfall Forest. "Under the window we've got a shelf for all our books." Something Jack noticed was the curtains had a large slash mark through them that'd been sewn back together. "And here, we've got our _totally_ awesome bunk beds. Mine and Weiss' is on the left, Yang and Blake's are on the right. Any questions?"

" . . . Am I the only one who thinks these 'bunk beds' look in_credibly_ unsafe?" Jack asked as he looked to the bed hanging from the ceiling, and then to the one being held aloft by stacks of hard-cover books.

"_Thank _you!" Weiss said voicing her thoughts on the matter.

"Not the question I was _going _for... but don't worry. These beds are totally, _totally _safe," Ruby said reassuringly.

"Not that I doubt your architectural skills..." Jack said as he looked at the nails holding the ropes in place. _'Or lack thereof,' _he thought to himself, the bed looking like it fall to the floor at any given moment. "But I'd really prefer a bed of my own, if that isn't asking too much."

"No problem. I sent in a requisition form after the fight, so our fifth bed will be here sometime tomorrow."

"You could always bunk with _me _tonight," Yang suggested.

"Um..." Jack said turning his attention to the bottom bunk on the right, before his gaze turned to Blake who was rapidly shaking her head. "I think I'll just take the sleeping bag tonight, if it's all the same to you."

"Eh, okay then," Yang replied with a shrug of her shoulders, Blake letting out a sigh of relief behind the blond's back.

"So... What should we do now?" Weiss asked, still a little uncomfortable with the fact they were rooming for five. Pyrrha Nikos could handle rooming with _two _boys, so at the very very least she could handle one. Even if he _was _a Faunus.

"Before we do anything else, I say we seal those crates of Dust before someone blows a hole through the side of the building," Jack said jabbing a thumb at the SDC-themed luggage in the corner.

"What's wrong with the way they are _now_?" Weiss asked, sounding slightly offended that Jack would doubt the work of her family's _personal _Dust handlers.

"That vial in your hands on day zero was _not _very secure," Jack said with crossed arms. "Seriously, after that thing went off your face, it looked like you lost a fight with an ashtray."

"You saw that video _too_?!" Weiss shrieked.

Suffice it to say, the heiress had practically exploded (metaphorically) a hundred times when her peers flashed that video in her face in the past week, and while the SDC controlled a great deal of the world's commerce outside of Dust, one of the things they COULDN'T control was the Interweb. Sure, their legal department could have certain things taken down in a couple of days, but since no form of profit was being derived from that line of "Exploding Snowflake" videos, there wasn't any actual case to take it down without skirting around the law.

"Y... Yeah..."

_"You sounded like you hesitated for a second," _Blake whispered into his ear. _"Why?"_

_"No reason, now shut up," _Jack whispered back.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

Suffice it to say, at times a _landmine _could handle pressure better than the Schnee heiress. _And _it would kill fewer people.

After finally getting the girl to admit that _maybe _her family's personal Dust handlers were getting complacent (read: sloppy) in their work, they were able to more-properly seal the vials. With the potential hazard of a Dust Explosion nipped in the bud, Team RWBY+1 (until Ruby could think up a better acronym) were able to begin hashing out the new "Roommate Agreement" in wake of how Jack would now be living with them for the next four years.

Nothing special, just the normal roommate stuff. Don't borrow anyone's things without asking. Girls get bathroom priority. No peeking. No bringing strange girls into the room without twelve-hours'-notice. Don't leave a mess. No walking around without pants on. Don't drag down the team. Light's out at ten. Etc.

Eventually, all the nit-gritty details had been sorted out, right in time for dinner.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Team JNPR waved them over as soon as they entered the dining hall, and once Team RWBY+1 had gotten their food and sat down, those from the surrounding tables picked up their food and moved. Some had frightened looks on their faces, others with hate, some with a mix of both.

"What's _with _everyone?" Ruby asked looking around.

"A Faunus kicking the asses of three _Humans _probably wounded their pride. Boo-hoo for them," Jack said rubbing a fake tear from his eye.

"And yet you sound _so _proud of yourself," Weiss huffed with crossed arms.

"Maybe," Jack said as he lazily shrugged his shoulders. A once-over of his immediate surroundings put Ruby and Weiss on his left, Yang and Blake on his right, with Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren across the table from him, left to right.

Could never be _too _aware of who was in arm's reach.

"I propose a toast, to Jack joining the _winning _team," Ruby said holding up her glass. The sentiment was unanimous, Weiss too to Jack's shock, as everyone clicked their glasses together. "So... What now?"

"Some small chat over dinner before bed?" Blake suggested.

"Hmmm... Sounds about right," Ruby agreed. "Jack, do you want to start?"

"Small chat? Alright then, let's see..." Jack hummed as he picked at his food. "I guess what I'd like to start with is, who here made money on the big fight, and how much? Given _I _was the one who got you that money, I think I have the right to know."

Nora excitedly raised her hand without an ounce of shame, followed by Ren who raised his hand from the elbow. Jaune chuckled nervously before raising his own hand, while Yang raised hers and Blake's hands, a large grin stretched across the blond's face. This only left Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha who hadn't made any money of that fight.

"Ren and I got fifty gs," Nora answered with a smile.

"Five thousand," Jaune admitted, secretly wishing he'd bet more.

"Sixty grand," Yang answered with a satisfied grin on her face.

"Forty thousand," Blake admitted.

"Well... Nice to see I could help you guys out," Jack said going back to his meal, paying the others' monetary gain no mind.

"What about you? How much did _you_ make?" Jaune said asking the obvious question.

"A hundred-thou," the Faunus answered, getting shocked looks from everyone around him. "What? If I'm going to bet on myself, I'm going to bet _big_."

"Is that really the sort of thing you should be advertising?" Ren spoke up, a number of people looking up from their own meals.

"If they want to take my money, they'll have to pry it from my cold, dead, fingers," Jack said flexing his hand, black claws springing out for emphasis.

"I didn't think Honey Badger Faunus _had _retractable claws," Ruby hummed as she took hold of his wrist and looked his claws over.

"It's not like I'm a purebred or anything," Jack said off-handedly as he let Ruby turn his hand over. "Most Faunus just tend to take after one parent more than the other is all. You won't see a Faunus with ram horns and a monkey tail, that's for sure."

"So what all are you then?" Jaune asked, trying not to sound incredibly racist.

"Half Honey Badger, half Shark. Except the shark half has been given cybernetic powers. And the Honey Badger half is one quarter jaguar," Jack answered, Ruby looking at him with stars in her eyes.

"I call bullshit," Weiss muttered.

"Alright, alright, you got me," Jack replied. "I don't really have cybernetic powers."

"Argh!" Weiss growled as the Faunus dragged out his stupid joke even longer.

"In all seriousness, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of Faunus are you?" Pyrrha questioned.

"Half Honey Badger, half Jaguar," Jack admitted.

"_Thank _you," Weiss sighed exasperatedly.

"Oh grow up, you exploding snowflake," Jack snapped back.

"Hey!"

"That's enough you two, break it up," Ruby said pulling out her whistle and letting out a loud **_*TWEEET* _**like a referee at a hockey game.

"Fuck! Right in the ears!" Jack swore holding his head.

"Uh... Whoops?" Ruby said nervously as she set down her whistle.

"You should probably _retire_ that thing. You know, for the good of our new teammate," Weiss spoke up. Since day one, that darned whistle was a thorn in her eardrum. But now, if her new teammate's presence could get it retired, then she was all for it.

_"Goodbye my friend," _Ruby whispered as she wrapped up the cord for her whistle and stuck it in her pocket. _"I knew thee well."_

"There there," Yang said patting her head.

"We should probably talk about something else," Ren spoke up.

"Ooh, ooh, me! Pick me!" Nora said enthusiastically.

"Yes... Nora?" Jack asked calling on her.

"Let's talk about the fight!" she suggested jovially.

"Um... Okay, sure," Jack replied. "Jaune, your thoughts?"

"Uh..." the blond said after being put on the spot. "You scare me?"

"Are you asking, or are you telling?"

"Telling?"

" . . . "

"Uh, _telling_."

"Alright then. Pyrrha, what about you?"

"You displayed a great deal of skill, even when deprived of your primary weapons," the red-head answered. "Most people tend to become so over-specialized on a single type of weapon, that when depried of it, their combat effectiveness usually drops to near-zero."

"What about you Nora?" he asked pointing to the fidgeting blond, who looked like she had something to say.

"My favorite part, _outside the leg-breaking_," she whispered, "was when you punched the black right _off _that guy," Nora announced without an ounce of shame.

_"Nora, perhaps you should be a bit more tactful with your words," _Ren whispered into her ear.

"Why? All I did was say he punched the black right _off _the guy," Nora said in her normal volume, a number of people picking up their trays and walking away.

"Nora, you're being incredibly racist," Ren scolded, trying to take control of the situation.

"_Why _exactly is she being racist?" Jack saw fit to ask.

"Well, because... you know... with your skin-tone and-" Jaune stated, only to let out a- "Eyipe!" -as Jack rose from his seat and slammed his hands on the table with a loud **_*SLAM*_**

"OH! So just because I've got dark skin that automatically makes me a _black guy_, HUH?!" Jack asked angrily.

"Um... Aren't you?" Pyrrha asked.

"No, as a matter of fact, I am not 'black'," Jack stated with narrowed eyes as he sat back down. "Unlike Humans, Faunus don't _discriminate_ by skin color, or what kind of secondary features we have. Being dark-skinned doesn't _mean _anything to my kind, outside of having a high eumelanin content. Any kind of resentment is purely personal."

"Oh. I didn't know that," Jaune stated. Both the fact that Faunus didn't discriminate by skin tone, and the eumelanin being responsible for dark-colored skin.

"Yeah, well, Humans tend to have their heads shoves so far up their asses, I'm surprised they know _anything_. Case in point," he said jabbing a thumb at Weiss.

"And what's _that _supposed to mean?!" the heiress bristled, extremely offended by that statement.

"Does the 'Exploding Snowflake' video from a week ago ring any bells?" Jack asked, the heiress turning red in the face, but held back her rage.

"Wait, I'm confused. _Why _does being black have no meaning for Faunus?" Yang asked. Back at Signal, the topic honestly never came up, so she was genuinely curious.

"Because early on, Faunus were able to recognize that we were all the same, even if we were different on the outside," Jack answered. "We breathe the same air, eat the same food, and bleed the same blood. Humans on the other hand turned black people into a slave race, simply because they had a different skin color. Bunch of hypocritical assholes if you ask me," he said with crossed arms.

"Why are humans hypocrites?" Pyrrha asked.

"Because for two decades after 'black' people got their freedom, you still kept Faunus as slaves, even after accepting that black people '_weren't all that different_'," Jack stated plainly.

" . . . I can't argue with _that _logic," the red-haired girl admitted. And it shamed her to do so, regarding one of the darker periods of Human history.

"How about we change the topic before someone starts a full-blown race war," Ren suggested.

"Agreed," almost everyone said simultaneously.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"So... Where did you learn how to fight?" Yang asked after a couple awkward minutes of silently eating.

"Hmmm..." Jack hummed to himself between bites, mulling over what he would answer. "Outside my early childhood, my _actual _training came from Skyrim," he eventually answered.

"That dragon-shaped continent to the west? Holy cow, no _wonder _you're so strong!" Jaune blurted out.

"So... the fact that it's shaped like a dragon, and I'm really strong _because _I trained there... is the _only _thing they teach you in school?" Jack asked. "Nothing else comes to mind?"

"Uh... Nope," Jaune answered.

" . . . I'm done... talking about this," Jack said with a huff as he picked up his tray and left.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"I think you might've insulted him," Blake spoke up from her meal.

"What'd _I _say?" Jaune cried in protest.

"Well, you _did _make the assumption he was black just because of his skin tone. That combined with your ignorance about the country he trained in, and he probably took offense to that," Nora stated articulately, the members of her own team gaping at her openly. _"He was insulted by your ignorance if you didn't notice," _she then whispered like it was some big conspiracy.

"I can relate," Weiss huffed as she went back to her own meal.

"Maybe we should give him a chance to cool his head. He _did _spend a week having his own Team treating him like dirt after all," Ruby said trying to avoid another internal conflict, knowing there would be a bit of friction to work through before Jack was completely comfortable.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**Just a little quickie before the next chapter, which is also character elaboration. Of course next-chapter is bound to be longer than this one. In RWBY Canon, since the dragon-shaped continent to the north of Vacuo doesn't have a name, I gave it one, and its significance will be explained later on down the road. For the time being, it isn't all that relevant, even if Jack _was _insulted by Jaune's ignorance.  
**

**As for the idea that being "black" for Faunus doesn't mean the same thing that it does for Humans, it all comes down to sense of identity. A person may be born a girl but self-identify as a boy, or vice versa. In North America, black kids may be "black", but in South America, black kids are not "black kids", they're just "kids". Gender and race do NOT equate to identity, at least from my perspective.**


	10. Bedding for Five

By the time Team RWBY had gotten back to their room from dinner, Jack had already made himself at home. Or at least as much at home as a person who had to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag next to their belongings could. He'd already changed into his pajamas, a bored look on his face as he flipped through his Grimm Studies textbook.

"Hey guys. Welcome back," he greeted with a lazy wave.

"Hey Jack. Whatcha reading?" Ruby asked, the Faunus in the room holding up the cover of his textbook to answer her question. "Right, dumb question," she admitted as she lightly bopped herself on the head.

"Hm," Jack hummed as he got back to his studies. A few sentences later, and a large stack of Lien was tossed into his lap. "What's this?" he asked running his thumb along the edges, counting out about 6,000 Lien in large bills.

"Your cut of the winnings. Its only fair since you did the hard part," Yang answered.

"From me as well," Blake replied as she handed him 10% of her own winnings as well, giving him a total of 110,000 Lien altogether.

"Ah... Thanks..." Jack said stuffing the money into his envelope, which he stuffed back under his pillow.

"So... Jack," Ruby spoke up from her bunk. "What's your mom like?"

"What brought this up?" Jack asked looking up from his book.

"Well, I mean, the way you reacted back there, you obviously took _offense _to what I said they said about your mom."

"Faunus or Human, you call someone's mom a word like _that_, and they're bound to get a little riled up."

"Clearly," Weiss huffed as she grabbed her PJs before heading off into the bathroom.

"Sooo... What's she like?" Ruby asked again.

"She's dead."

"Oh... Sorry," Ruby replied, visibly deflating at her friend's answer. "I lost my mom _too_, if that makes you feel any better."

" . . . Thanks," Jack eventually replied. He looked like he wanted to say more, but was content to keep it to himself.

"How about we move onto something a little less gloomy, huh?" Yang cut in trying to brighten up the mood.

"Like what?" Blake asked, looking up from her own book.

"Like... What do you plan to do with the money?" the blond asked.

"Well, my axe and tomahawk are a complete _bust _now, so I guess I'll start drawing up a blueprint for a new weapon and order the parts when I'm done," Jack answered turning a page in his book.

"Ooh, ooh, can I help?" Ruby asked enthusiastically.

"Sure. I have an idea of what I want to make, so we can start working on the design tomorrow."

_"Yay!"_ Ruby whispered to herself, absolutely giddy.

"By the way she was looking over my claws, I assume Ruby is _way _into weapons," Jack said turning an eye to Yang.

"Oh, you have _no _idea."

"Does she cuddle her sniper-scythe and call it 'sweetheart'?"

"Okay maybe you _do _have some idea."

"You seem to be very good at judging people at a glance," Blake chimed in.

"Yeah, well, when everyone but the ninetieth percentile wants to shove a knife in your back, or put a bullet in your head, or any _other _number of bodily harms, you learn to pick out the gems from the back-stabbers pretty quickly," Jack said with a neutral expression on his face.

"Jack... You aren't joking, are you?" Ruby asked seriously.

"If you remember anything from our chat in the gazebo, you should already know the answer," Jack replied as he flipped another page, Ruby reluctantly nodding her head in agreement.

"Well you won't have to worry about any of _us _stabbing you in the back. Right girls?" Ruby asked, getting affirmative gestures from both Blake and Yang. Moments later and Weiss stepped out of the bathroom, clad in her pajamas, her Myrtenaster held tightly in her hands. She and Jack locked eyes for several seconds before the heiress walked to her bunk with a huff, nose upturned and fingers drumming the handle of her rapier as she passed by.

"Um... Three out of_ four _isn't so bad," Yang said nervously.

"I'll sleep with my back against the wall, thank you very much," Jack said as he dragged his sleeping bag to the right corner of the room opposite the window.

"Alright guys, lights-out is in ten minutes. We've got a big day tomorrow," Ruby affirmed as she zipped into the closet, grabbing her PJs before dashing into the bathroom.

"Ah, that's right. We'll have to do a bit of remodeling," Yang remembered as she walked into the closet and grabbed her own PJs. However, instead of going to the bathroom like Ruby, she began to disrobe after she'd walked past the window. "Like what you see?" she asked sending a wink Jack's way after pulling her shirt over her head, revealing a yellow sports bra.

"Given who's in the room across from me," he said glancing at Weiss, "that sounds like a loaded question."

"What's _that _supposed to mean?!"

"You'd probably make some kind of animal-based crack about my 'baser instincts' or something for _one_," Jack said with air quotes. "You want, I can go two for two."

_"Guys! Please stop fighting!" _Ruby said from behind the bathroom door, bursting out seconds later. "Come on, we shouldn't go to bed angry."

"Rrk!" Weiss jolted from her bed. "Don't... _worry_... Ruby..." Weiss said through clenched teeth as Jack shot her a smug grin, his sense of self-satisfaction practically saturating the room. "Just a little... friendly banter... is all."

"Yep. Weiss and I are going to be _beeest _buddies. Isn't that right snow angel?" Jack replied back, the heiress' eye twitching at his other pet name for her.

_'It's the same as that_ buffoon,' Weiss thought to herself as the image of a certain blond pinned to the wall by a spear entered her mind, wondering how someone like _him _could've gotten accepted into Beacon when so many others did not. Thankfully no-one caught on, but she _too _was guilty of ogling some of the merchandise as it were, an act that someone of her station was normally _above_. She'd observed quite a few whom she suspected could've given herself or even Pyrrha _Nikos _a run for their money, with a bit more training at least. _'If he used falsified transcripts to get into this prestigious academy, I will _not _be surprised,' _she thought to herself in regards to a certain unskilled blonde. "Yes... _Best _buddies."

_"We'll need to do some_ serious _team-bonding if we don't want those two to kill one another,_" Blake whispered to her bunk mate.

_"Ditto," _the blond replied. _"Hey wait, when'd you change into your PJs?"_

_"When no-one was looking,"_ the cat-like girl replied. A moment later and the lights went out, two fifths of the room completely unaffected by the sudden change in light, the curtains dawn and blocking out the moon's light outside.

"Goodnight, Yang," Ruby said climbing up into her bed.

"Goodnight, Ruby," Yang said hopping up into her own. "Goodnight, Blake."

"Goodnight, Yang," Blake replied as she slipped under the covers. "Goodnight, Jack."

"Goodnight, Blake. Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight, Jack. Goodnight Blake."

"Goodnight, Ruby. Goodnight-"

"For the love of God, go to sleep already!" Weiss hissed from her bunk.

" . . . Goodnight scarface," Jack said getting in the last word.

_'HrrrrRRRrrgh...' _Weiss silently fumed from her bed, knowing that if she snapped at him, she'd be giving the guy exactly what he wanted.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

With perfect night vision, it was a simple-enough task for Jack to keep an eye on his teammates until they went to sleep. Now mind you, he wasn't doing it to be creepy, but for personal reasons, he preferred to be the last-asleep in the room, and the first-awake. Leave the smallest margin for a potential ambush. Although the monumental blunder of General Lagune at the Battle of Fort Castle had been the major turning point in the Faunus Rights Revolution, it still didn't change the fact that Faunus had to sleep, and a sleeping Faunus was a vulnerable Faunus.

Of course, Jack was both a heavy _and _a light sleeper, as in once he fell asleep he'd _stay _asleep, but even the slightest movement in his general direction would wake him up. Long story how _that _happened.

That was why, of course, when a minute **_*snap* _**echoed into his ear at the crack of dawn, that the Faunus' eyes snapped open, golden-amber as his cat-like eyes darted around the room.

_'What was that?'_

**_*snap*_**

_'There it is again.'_

_***snap*snap*snap***_

_'Okay seriously, what is' ***snap* **'What even_ is _that?_' Jack pondered as his eyes darted around the room, trying to find the source of the noise that had roused him from his slumber.

**_*Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrn*_**

_'It sounds like it's coming from-' _Jack thought as he looked to the left of the window, then up, then down before looking back up again.

_***snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap***_

"Awww... shit!" Jack swore as he scrambled to his feet.

**_*SNAP*_**

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**_*CRASH*_**

"Kyah!" a voice shrieked out.

"Ruby!" Yang cried as she jolted up in her bed. Blinking rapidly, once her eyes adjusted to the light, where once Ruby's bed hung there were instead collection of snapped ropes. Her gaze going down saw a dazed Ruby sitting up in her bed with swirling eyes. Said bed of course was- "Holy shit! We killed Weiss!"

Yeah. That. Ruby's bed had fallen right on top of the Schnee heiress.

"Uwah... What happened?" Ruby asked, tiny beowolf pups swirling around her head and yipping in her ears. Shaking off her dizziness, she looked around before blurting out- "Ohmygod! We killed Weiss!"

_"You animal! Don't touch me!" _the heiress suddenly shrieked out from between the two beds. A moment later, and Ruby's bunk lifted ever-so-slightly to reveal Jack sandwiched between Weiss, and the bottom of Ruby's bed. They were practically nose-to-nose, and _neither _looked happy with their current predicament.

"Hey, I just saved your _life_!" Jack, the only thing between the snooty rich girl and a full-body cast, snapped back.

"Oh thank god," Ruby sighed, glad she _hadn't _inadvertently killed her partner in her sleep.

"Ah! You just brushed up against my thigh! You _lech_!"

"Hey don't_ flatter_ yourself, this isn't for you anyway."

"Rrrgh, why you!" **_*SLAP*_**

"Ow! Hey, what the hell bit-" **_*RRRRrrrrn* _**

"Kyah!" Ruby cried out as the legs of Weiss' bed gave out with a **_*CRASH*_**, the two bunks crashing to the floor, and her sent rolling against the stuff piled against the wall. A couple seconds later, and a number of boxes, crates, and other miscellaneous storage devices all came down around her head, leaving three fifths of the Team buried, and one half of the room looking like a complete pig sty.

"Hey Weiss, tone down the _bedlam_, will ya?" Yang punned.

"Yang..." Ruby said as she pushed a crate off her head. "Now is not the time."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Weiss, I am _sooooo _sorry!" Ruby apologized a few minutes later once Weiss and Jack had been dug out from the remains of the two bunks. Both of which were ruined beyond repair.

"No, no, I'm partially at fault here as well," the heiress admitted, looking a little ruffled around the feathers but otherwise perfectly fine. "I knew that thing was a deathtrap from the moment I laid eyes on it but I slept in it anyway."

"Weiss, don't you owe someone an apology?" Yang asked. Ruby, at the moment, was slumped over in the corner and drawing little circles on the floor with her finger.

"What? It's true," the heiress argued.

"I was referring to _him_," the blond said jabbing a thumb at Jack. Said Faunus sported a rather impressive slap mark on the side of his face, which was marred by a large scowl as Blake picked pieces of wood out of his hair.

"Yeah, no, don't mind me," Jack said sarcastically. "Just the guy who saved you from dying the most embarrassing death in the _history _of embarrassing deaths. Ever. Of all time."

"That should be the last of it," Blake said as she pulled one final splinter out from behind his ear.

"So then..." Weiss said as she flattened out her sleeping gown. "What do we do now?"

"We'll order an extra pair of beds from the school," Ruby answered.

"Ahem!" Jack coughed in.

"_And_... a set of braces to make legitimate bunk beds," the girl added on.

"What's wrong with _my _work?" Yang questioned as she hopped onto Blake's bunk, the black-haired girl taking an involuntary step back from her bed. "My construction is _rock_-solid." The blond then went on to tempt fate by banging a fist against one of the bed posts. However at that very _same _moment, one of he books suddenly slipped out of a column, the top bed sliding sideways as one of the legs was shortened. "Whoops."

"Dammit Yang!" Jack swore as he lunged at the blond. Arms wrapped around her head and body, the two rolled out of Blake's bunk moments before Yang's came down like a hammer, turning the cat-like girl's bed into kindling.

"Yang, are you okay?" Ruby asked through the small cloud of splintery dust kicked up.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine," Yang said from her position on Jack's chest.

"You should probably add _another _two beds to that order," Jack stated, his back throbbing once again.

"Already on it..." Ruby sighed in defeat as she tapped into her Scroll.

"So... You going to get off?" the Faunus in the room asked the busty brawler, who had yet to remove her head from his chest.

"In a minute. I have to make sure you didn't get hurt in the fall," Yang said as she sat up, straddling him at the waist. "Hmmm..." she hummed as she ran her hands along his upper body. "Everything _seems _okay. But I should probably make doubly-sure," she said as she lifted herself off of him slightly and went further south. As she continued to feel him up, Weiss' face turned red as Ruby's cloak, while Blake chose to turn away entirely. "Well now, I see there's nothing wrong with your blood flow," she stated with a grin on her face.

"Thanks. Now, could you stop molesting me? It looks like Ruby's going to die of shock," he said jabbing a thumb over to the right. The blond's gaze going left, she saw Ruby completely red in the face and covering her face with her hands, albeit she was peeking between her fingers, her gaze completely fixated on them.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"You wanna see what _caliber _he's packing?" Yang asked as she tapped the arrow beneath the text on the Faunus' shirt.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Breakfast that Sunday morn was a rather _awkward _affair, and no-one was in much of a mood to make small talk. Weiss and Jack wouldn't even _look _at one another, and whenever they did they simply looked away with a huff. While Yang _attempted _to create dialogue with her little sister, Ruby's attention was too focused on making sure that Weiss and Jack didn't try to kill one another. Blake was antisocial as always, though the fact that her bunk too shared the same fate as Weiss' may've had something to do with it.

On top of that, people were still giving them a wide berth. Of course, it had only been a day since three moderately-skilled Hunters-in-training were hospitalized, so that was to be expected.

"It looks like we dodged a bullet on this one," Ruby sighed as she put down her Scroll, surprised she was able to get _five _beds ordered on such short notice, let alone one.

"Yeah. For a minute there, I was afraid we'd all have to sleep on the floor," Yang added.

"Oh nooooo. That's sooo terrible. A fate that's worse than death," Jack replied, his voice _dripping _with sarcasm.

"Hmph. You never stop whining, do you?" Weiss huffed.

"Bitch, I eat people!" the Faunus snarled, his eyes flashing to red and an ominous aura washing over the room.

"Jack, Jack!" Ruby said getting his attention. "I need you... to reign it back in... Can you do that for me?"

" . . . " **_*Hssssssss* _**Jack sighed as he breathed through his teeth. "Yeah... Yeah, I can do that. Don't worry about it."

"Great! All that's left is to assemble our beds, and then it's back to class first thing tomorrow!" the red-hooded girl cheered.

"Weren't you the class that barely scraped by on day one?" the Faunus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Ugh, don't _remind_ me," the Schnee heiress huffed. A tardy on day one would've been a stain on her record the girl wouldn't have stood for.

_***Knock*knock***_

"Beds are here," Jack said as he got to his feet, answering the door. "Well, if it isn't the most-racist teacher at Beacon, Professor Goodbitch. What do you want?" the Faunus asked with a flat expression, the others in the room flinching back as they realized just who was at the door.

"I..." Glynda started, having anticipated, but still been unprepared for the less-than-warm welcome she'd been given. "I've come by to apologize for my actions yesterday."

"Yeah. Sure you are," Jack scoffed as he rolled his eyes. "You wanna save face, save it for someone who cares, 'cause I ain't buyin' what you're sellin'."

_"Jack, this is your_ professor _you're talking to. Show her some respect!_" Weiss hissed from behind his back.

"Listen snowflake, respect is a two-way road, and if she can't even treat me like a _person_, instead of an animal, then she ain't gettin' a drop of it outta me," Jack snapped at her.

"What you said _was _pretty racist," Blake stated from the corner as she made her opinion known.

"I know... and I apologize about that," Glynda said trying to mend the divide as best she could.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders.

" . . . I suppose that's the best I can hope for," Glynda sighed, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "The other reason I'm here is to deliver the beds you requested. How... exactly _did_ you wreck all your beds," she asked eyeing the pile of kindling in the middle of the room.

"Shoddy craftsmanship by an incompetent architect," Weiss stated, not too keen on how she'd almost died the most embarrassing death in the history of embarrassing deaths. Ever. Of all time.

_"I said I was sorry..." _Ruby teared up slightly from the side, Yang petting her head with a- "There, there."

"Well, I'm sure all of you have classes to be ready for in the morning, so how about I set up your beds for you," Glynda offered, trying to make up for what she'd said about Jack the other day.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Suffice it to say, Glynda's Semblance, Telekinesis, had Team RWBY+1's beds assembled and usable in a matter of moments, the pile of kindling lowered to the ground outside for later disposal. I guess _anyone's _willing to bend over backwards to make up for spewing out racial slurs, even if it was unintentional.

Ruby and Weiss' bunk bed, held together with legitimate bunk bed posts, was in pretty much the exact same spot it had been before. Yang and Blake's was similarly assembled, though moved a little closer to the center of the room. This just left Jack's lone bed, pressed up against the right wall, at his request.

"Assembly, complete," Ruby said with a smile, even though she'd done none of the work.

"Now I can finally sleep in peace," Weiss said as she ran her hand along the much more stable-looking bedpost.

"Hmmm... It still feels like something's missing," Yang hummed as she tilted her head to the side.

"Maybe it's that one bookshelf in the center. With five in the room, just that isn't going to cut it," Jack said with crossed arms.

"Yeah, but where're we going to get a new one?" Ruby asked.

"You just leave that to me. Come on, Yang. I need to borrow you for a minute," Jack said walking out the door.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A couple minutes later, and the bookshelf from former Team DIRJ's room had been moved into that of Team RWBY+1. Some moved furniture later, and it and its like-type brother were placed back to back, perpendicular from the window. This offered up a great deal of shelf space for the Team, as well as a new table running the room lengthwise.

While they were at it, the Team decided to clean up some of the clutter on the left side of the room, since they were rooming for five and they couldn't stash half their stuff against the side of the room anymore. Because the replacement beds were some of the newer models, and not those which belonged to the previous occupants of that room, Weiss was able to stash her cases of Dust beneath her bed, freeing up some much-needed space along the left wall. Too large to fit under any of the other beds, the rest of the crates were lined up more-orderly, and by some miracle they were able to make the room a little less cluttered.

You could even see that one painting of the Foreverfall Forest.

"You know, I thought rooming for five would be a bit cramped, but this actually turned out really well," Ruby admitted as she looked over her abode. "Still..."

"What?" Yang asked.

"I miss my tent," the red-head sighed.

"We'll set one up for you after school tomorrow," the blond told her sister.

"It was pretty nice of Goodwitch to set up our beds for us. Save us the time," Weiss stated.

"There was something in it for her, I just know it," Jack said as he laid back on his bed.

"Does _every _Human have to have an ulterior motive with you?" the heiress asked.

"Is there any other kind?" the Faunus replied.

"Guys, please don't fight," Ruby pleaded. "It isn't healthy to go to bed angry."

"So Jack, now that you're part of Team RWBY, what do you think of things so far?" Yang asked as she changed into her PJs.

"I wasn't exactly thrilled with my _previous _living arrangements, and I wasn't all that thrilled with _today's _wakeup call either," Jack stated as he cracked his neck. "But... The company is a major improvement. And don't worry, I won't drag you guys down."

"I'm sure you won't," Ruby said with a smile. "Oh crap!"

"What is it?" Yang asked worriedly.

"I forgot to come up with an abbreviation for our Team that has a _J _in it!" the red-hooded girl cried, Weiss slapping her forehead at the perceived idiocy, Yang laughing good-naturedly, Blake simply shook her head, and Jack was nonplussed.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**DELETED SCENE:  
**

**"Who's the poor sap who has to sleep under that thing anyway?" Jack asked jabbing a thumb towards the "bunk bed" on the left. The one on the right was only _slightly _better, though the smallest nudge from on high and Poor Sap #2 would be yesterday's news.  
**

**"_*Sigh* _That would be me," Weiss sighed as she hung her head.**

**" . . . "**

**Jack was silent for a few moments, donning a thoughtful expression with crossed arms. Then, to Weiss' surprise, he placed his hands upon her shoulders making her face him. Because he was a head taller than her 5'3" at about 5'9", he had to kneel slightly so they were on eye level. The way his strong hands rested on her slender shoulders, combined with the closeness of their faces, caused the Schnee heiress' cheeks to flush slightly. Ruby, Blake, and Yang were equally transfixed on the scene.**

**"Weiss."**

**"Y-Yes, Jack?" Weiss asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of her tone. Due to the nature of her social standing, when her ability to fight became apparent, at her own request her parents had sent her to one of the premier combat schools in Atlas. However, because it was all-girls, she had never gotten to interact with boys her own age like other girls got to. Outside of Jaune hitting on her, and those dinner parties her family hosted where the other male heirs' intentions were transparent as champagne glass, this was the most contact she'd had with someone of the opposite sex. Jack may've been... _difficult_, to get along with, but he _was _strong, and handsome, and-  
**

**"When you die, can I have your Dust?"**

**And like that the dream was shattered.**

**"Wh-Wha- How _dare _you!?" the heiress shrieked, now red in the face for a completely _different _reason.**

**"Oh man, _I _was gonna call dibs on that," Yang huffed as she snapped her fingers.**

**"Are we seriously having this conversation right now?" Blake asked as she took a step away from Ruby and Weiss' bunk. She knew from day one that it wasn't exactly safe, but now that Jack brought it up, she was _way _more aware of its precarious nature than usual.**

**"You know the school gives out braces you can use to make these _legitimate _bunk beds, right?" Jack proceeded to ask, the lack of an affirmative response causing him to reiterate. "_Right_?"**

**"Uhhhhhhhh..." Ruby answered noncommittally.**

**"Glad they can't hang _sleeping bags _from the ceiling, because that thing is a deathtrap waiting to kill someone," Jack stated. "No offense."**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**When I was writing the part where Ruby's bed fell from the ceiling and almost crushed Weiss, for some reason I thought of Red vs Blue Season 9 Episode 15 (Sarcophagus), when that remaining Banshee fell from the ceiling for no apparent reason after "Sharkface" took a hard one to the face from Carolina. I don't recall any story I'VE read where Ruby's bed falls from the ceiling for no reason, or at least I don't remember one where she or Weiss were IN their bunks when Ruby's fell. Here's to hoping I did something unique here.  
**

**As for what brushed against Weiss's thigh that early in the morning and why she called him a pervert, use your imagination. Or for the guys out there, an ounce of common sense. Hell, Yang practically spelled it out for you in black and white; or white and black if you use if you use the Story Contrast option at the top of the page.  
**

**The deleted scene at the end WAS going to be in the main story, but with the new narrative it didn't seem to fit, so this is more or less of an alternate take on that scene and how it could've played out.**

**I didn't get that many Reviews last-chapter pertaining to the fight scene, so I'm not too sure how well I did back then, though I'm hoping I did well with the character elaboration here. Jack only _just _joined Team RWBY officially, so we have yet to more-deeply explore everyone's interpersonal relationships. I just hope I'm doing everyone in the cast justice.**

**Anywho, be sure to leave your comments in the section below. I appreciate anything that isn't mindless flaming from a bunch of hacks who can't even write their _own _story. At the very least, I'm _trying _to get better.**


	11. Unarmed & Dangerous

After that little incident on the _first _week of school, following the weekend Weiss was _insistent _they have fail safes in place so they wouldn't have a repeat. Thus, at six-fifty, ten minutes before _seven _upon her insistence, a quartet of Scroll alarms went off simultaneously. Suffice it to say, everyone was roused _violently _from their slumber.

"Oooogh... Dammit, Weiss... I was just about to get to the _good _part," Yang groaned as she rose from her bed and rubbed her eyes, her mane of bright blond hair fluffed outward in all directions like the plumage of a certain bird whose name starts with **C **and ends with an **o**.

"Sis. _*Yaaaawn* _Did you have a milk and cookies dream too?" Ruby sleepily asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"Uhhh…" the blond _uhhh_ed. "Sure, let's go with that."

_'Nice save,' _Blake thought as she slapped a palm onto her Scroll to end the incessant ringing.

"Mmm'kay…" Ruby yawned before she flopped back down onto the bed.

"Ruby, you get up this instant, we have to get ready!" Weiss urged as she lifted herself up to Ruby's bunk, the red-head already asleep and mumbling about milk and cookies. "Ruby!" the whitette shrieked as she roused the young woman awake once more with a good shake.

"Has anyone seen Jack?" Blake asked, the others' attention turning to the now empty bunk, one corner of the covers flipped over.

"Jack Braxton, if you've left hair in the drain, so help me, I'll-" she shrieked at the bathroom door_._.

"It isn't seven in the morning," Jack yawned as he rubbed his eyes, a towel over his shoulder and a bucket of toiletries in his hand as he came in through the hall door. "Would you save your harping for later? Like maybe after I've gotten dressed?" At the moment he was clad in a dark green bathrobe that went down to his knees, a number of slash and stab scars visible across his sternum and collarbones. Apart from that, his robe was drawn tightly closed, though a number of scars could be seen on his shins and feet as well.

"Hrrmm…" Weiss growled before she stormed into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

"Yeesh, who pissed in _her _corn flakes?" Yang questioned.

"Hmmm… Tempting… But no, I already went," Jack replied curtly as he stepped into the closet to change.

"This… will probably take a while," Ruby said rubbing her eyes.

"Well, you've got a Faunus from a warrior race with a history mired by blood, and a flaming racist who is heir to one of the most corrupt and racist companies in the world living under the same roof," Blake spoke up on the subject. Faunus discrimination was probably _the _biggest subject she'd actually speak up about. "Those two are like oil and water. They won't mix, no matter how hard you try."

At this, Ruby groaned. She wanted _desperately _for everyone to get along, but it seemed like Jack and Weiss' antagonistic tendencies toward one another would never let that happen. "This totally sucks."

"Hey, don't worry too much about it," Jack's said from the closet. "Things got better for _me_. You just need to be a little patient for your own stuff."

"Thanks, Jack," Ruby replied as the Faunus stepped out. His uniform was the same as the boys', the only real difference being that the tie was loosened considerably, the top button was undone, and he was wearing his leather greaves and vambraces. "So, you ready for your first day of class with the new Team?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Jack replied as he adjusted his already-loosened tie. "I'm not _totally _satisfied with my choice of housemates," he said directing a glare towards the bathroom door. "But nonetheless, this is a major improvement over my _previous _living arrangements."

"Believe me, I'm as thrilled as you are," Weiss said flatly as she stepped out, flattening the creases in her skirt.

"Bite me," Jack replied plainly in return.

"Oh, so you're into _that _are you?" Yang asked with a smirk, licking her lips.

"Possibly," Jack replied in return as he stroked his chin, though he was saying it more to himself. Weiss retched at the new direction in dialogue, Ruby blushed as she caught onto her sister's meaning, and Blake opted to slink off into the bathroom before things got any more _personal_.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Now then, who here wishes to demonstrate their skills as a Huntsman in training?" Professor Port broached to the class towards the end.

"I do!" Jack answered as he rose from his seat.

"Ah, Mr. Braxton. Am I to assume you've acquired a replacement weapon?"

"No, sir," Jack answered, much to the shock of his peers.

"Oh… Then you want to fight bare-handed?"

"I think _every _Huntsman should be willing to get their hands dirty," the monochrome-haired Faunus answered as he made his way down to the ground floor, clenching and un-clenching his fists as he popped his claws.

"Um, very well then," Professor Port said as he drew out his Blunderaxe and approached the snarling cage. "Step forward, and face your opponent!" he announced before bringing the axe of his blade down and slashing the lock clean off.

The cage door swinging out to the side moments later, a lone Beowolf leaped out of the cage and into the light. Its crimson-colored eyes adjusting to the light, when its gaze locked on the Faunus across from it that smelled of blood, it let out a bestial roar that could be heard in the neighboring rooms. As the beast charged, instead of getting into a fighting stance, Jack merely smirked.

"Come on wolfie…" Jack goaded with a grin as he threw his arms out wide. "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!" he bellowed, waves of crimson red Aura spilling out of his body and saturating the air with killing intent.

The students in the front row backed into the desks of the second row, beads of sweat dripping down their faces as the Faunus' killing intent washed over them. Students in the following rows had similar reactions, though less pronounced the further back in the room you got. However, it was how the _Grimm _reacted that was the real eye-opener.

In most cases, a Grimm wouldn't hesitate to attack a Human or a Faunus. Especially after being left in a cage in a back room for days on end so it'd completely fixate on the first thing it saw, thus making it relatively-safe to release them in school grounds. However, this one was actually _whimpering_, quivering in place and its feet shifting backwards. Moments later, the Grimm turned tail, said tail tucked between its legs, as it ran back into the cage and pulled the door shut.

"Bitch, get out here so I can _kill _something!" Jack growled as he ran up to the bars and tried pulling the door open, only for the whimpering Grimm to take hold of the bars and pull back. Though it was young, its strength was still impressive.

"Um, Professor Port?" Ruby spoke up.

"Yes, Ms. Rose?" the portly professor replied.

"Why is that Beowolf running away? I thought Grimm didn't _feel _fear."

"That's a common misconception, my dear," the man replied. "Though Grimm are often seen as mindless beasts, they have _some _modicum of self-preservation instinct, which compels them inexorably to ensure their own survival in the face of an overwhelming opponent. While Grimm are naturally drawn to Huntsmen and Huntresses like moths to a flame because of the Aura they possess, the presence of a _veteran _Hunter is enough of a deterrent to keep weaker-willed Grimm at bay. Why, I remember a hunt where, _blah, blah blah-blah blah blah…_"

And as Professor Port's words faded out into bombastic, self-absorbed droning about things they didn't really want to hear, the feral Faunus was finally able to pull the door open, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, threw himself into it. As Port rambled on about some time, at some place, a really long time ago, where for some reason he _intimidated_ a Grimm into submission rather than shooting its head off, startled barks and howls echoed out of the cage, everyone's attention drawn to it and away from the professor as the cage bounced about like something out of an old cartoon.

A minute later and the cage door burst open again, the Grimm dragging itself across the floor and attempting to flee, only to be drawn back into the darkness, its claws leaving trails in the floor before the door was closed once again. Another minute filled with taunts about the Grimm's mother, which was drowned out by Port's story-telling, and a startled yelp followed by a sickening _***CRACK* **_echoed throughout the classroom air before the cage door opened once more.

"Ahhhhhhhh…" Jack sighed as he dusted off his hands, his uniform no worse for wear aside from the bloodstains. "There's nothing quite like getting your hands dirty to relieve some pent-up aggression," he said with an unnerving smile on his face as he made his way back to his seat.

Since said blood on his clothes was evaporating into black mist, it meant the blood was the Grimm's, not his.

"And I said to the Alpha Beowolf, with walking stick held high, 'You shall not-"

_***BRRRRRING***_

"Oh, I timed _that _one wrong," Port said as his story was cut short. "Well, it seems like we're all out of time for today," Professor Port admitted bashfully. "Mr. Braxton, have you finished dispatching the… Grimm…" the portly man trailed off as he looked into the cage, the remains of the beast evaporating, its head twisted around a complete 180 degrees. "Well… that's _one _way to ensure a permanent end to one of the creatures of Grimm. Class dismissed!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I guess we know who to talk to if we need a jar opened," Yang joked as the Team made their way to their next class.

"That was _completely _unnecessary," Weiss huffed with a pout.

"I take it you've done that before?" Blake saw fit to question, since there was almost no hesitation in Jack's movements.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack replied, his school bag held lazily behind his head over his right shoulder.

"That was so cool!" Ruby gushed. "Don't you think so too?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Y-Yeah…" Jaune answered, white as a sheet and shivering. "Way cool…" he said holding a shaky thumbs-up.

"Jack, maybe that show of force was a tad… excessive," Pyrrha voiced in, having never seen Jaune so traumatized. Right around that moment, she was regretting making him sit in the front of the class so he'd pay attention.

"I certainly don't think so," Nora said with a grin on her face as she skipped along.

"Nora," Ren said as he straightened his tie. "Not everyone can handle that level of bloodlust."

"Pheh, pansies," both Jack and Nora said at the same time. Freezing mid-step, they turned to one another, before raising their hands and doing a high-five. "Nora. I like you more already."

"Why thank you, kind sir," Nora said curtsying exaggeratedly.

"See, Weiss? Why can't _you _get along with Jack that well?" Ruby asked.

"_Bite me,"_ the heiress muttered under her breath.

"A) I can hear you, and B) Do you forget what happened the last time you asked someone to do that?" Jack questioned.

"Quiet, you," the heiress huffed before walking off to the next class.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

At Beacon Academy, school started at nine and ended at four, squeezing about seven hours of classes into each day. Each class lasted an hour and a half, with five minutes between classes, lunch in the middle of the day at 12:10 and lasting forty minutes, before the next class started at 12:55. There were four classes each day, and every few weeks, the schedules of classes changed to accommodate for both the students that were out on missions, as well as the instructors who also left on missions across Remnant. As such, the schedule varied greatly from year to year, and notices of who took what classes at what times were sent out a few days prior to any schedule changes made.

As such, for the present, Professor Port's class on Grimm Studies came first, followed by Dr. Oobleck's class on World History, and lunch separated that from Dr. James' Peach's class on Herbology, which largely dealt with training students on what plants could and could not be eaten, for when they had to live off the land while operating in the Frontier away from the Kingdoms' protection. At the end of the day was Professor Goodwitch's Live Combat class, and like the name stated, it was reserved exclusively for live combat between students, as well as lectures on battle tactics, normally pointing out what was done right and wrong.

"Jack Braxton, Russel Thrush, please step into the ring," Glynda ordered as Yang and her previous opponent vacated the dueling stage.

As Jack casually walked off toward the locker room to change, the green-haired teen was sweating bullets, having flashbacks to two days hence where three skilled individuals had been chewed up and spit back out onto stretchers. Because their Auras had been completely depleted at the time of their injuries, their recovery speed had been retarded slightly, and were slated to return to courses in a month's time, a few weeks if they got plenty of bed rest and didn't strain their bodies.

"P-Professor Goodwitch… ma'am," Russel spoke up.

"Yes, Mr. Thrush?" the woman asked.

"Can I fight someone else, please?"

"No," the woman answered plainly. The fights were completely randomized, outside of measures to ensure the same people didn't fight one another too many times.

"B-But I don't wanna die down there," he whimpered.

"Today's duel is operating on standard dueling rules. If your Aura reaches the red, the match will be called, and I will intervene if need be. Now go get your weapons and gear, or I'll deduct participation points from your Team's grade," the said sternly.

"Man up, Russel. You're making us look bad," Cardin said as he booted Russel in the rear and moving him from his seat. Gulping audibly and wiping the sweat from his forehead, he headed off to the locker rooms to change, giving Jack a wide berth as he stepped back into the light, now combat-ready and cracking his knuckles as he stepped onto the stage.

"Goodwitch," the Faunus greeted, willing to show he could let things go.

"Braxton," the professor replied, hoping to ease the racial tensions that had arisen between them. Historically, it was never difficult to unite victims of persecution of a single cause, and the last thing she needed on her conscience was to push a skilled student into the arms of the White Fang.

"Just to make things clear, since I don't have a weapon, I'm going to have to punch him. A lot," Jack explained as he did a couple stretches. "Not sure when I'll stop."

"As long as you know to stop when Mr. Thrush's Aura reaches the _red_, I will not hold any conduct against you," the woman replied simply.

"Didn't stop you from dredging up events I wasn't even _around _for," Jack replied, showing he wasn't willing to let _everything _go.

"And again…" Glynda said as she adjusted her glasses. "I apologize for that. What I said was out of line."

" . . . At least you're willing to admit your faults to a _lesser being,_" the Faunus spat with a roll of his eyes.

"I never once considered Faunuskind inferior to Humans," Glynda replied.

"Could've fooled me," Jack said back with a shrug of his shoulders, Russel stepping back into the light, twirling his Dust-loaded daggers in his hands. "You may wanna step back. First couple of rows are a _splaaash _zone~" the Faunus said in a sing-song tone as he walked to the other side of the stage, giving Russel the space he wanted on the other side.

"Jack Braxton… Russel Thrush… You may begin when ready," Glynda announced as she stepped off the stage.

"Russel, right?" Jack asked.

"Y-Yeah…" the greenette replied, twirling his daggers in his hands to hold his unease at bay.

"You may wanna clench your teeth," the Faunus said as he casually strolled forward. "You know, so you don't bite your tongue."

And like a starting gun was fired, the two rushed at one another, one with casual ease, while the other mustered his courage before his peers. Russel started up with two horizontal sweeps, Jack ducking and weaving around the strike before coming back up and delivering two quick jabs to the chin, staggering his opponent back before a sudden jump kick sent the greenette rolling across the ground. Digging his daggers into the floor and wresting his momentum, with the handholds in place he was off like a shot, flipping in mid-air before aiming a flying double kick at Jack's midsection. The Faunus braced one hand with the other and caught the kick, skidding back a couple feet before his claws lengthened and dug into the teen's feet. Lifting him overhead, Russel was soon introduced to the ground in an overhead throw with a loud _***THUD***_, those watching flinching as the greenette bounced before coming to a stop on his face.

"I'm getting bored here," Jack said as he paced around his fallen opponent lazily. "Come on, your Aura isn't even halfway down yet," he said jabbing a thumb at the screen, the greenette's Aura at around **70%**.

"Get up! You're making us look bad!" Cardin shouted as Russel pushed himself to his feet, shaking the stars out of his eyes as he rose to face his opponent.

The next moment, Jack slipped completely around Russel's guard and got behind him, wrapping his arms around his opponent's midsection before falling over backwards into a German suplex, the greenette's weapons clattering in opposite directions as he was dropped on his head. A moment later and Jack was on top of his opponent, pinning him to the ground with a knee to the sternum and punching him in the face.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Long story short, Jack spent the next five minutes punching his opponent repeatedly in the face.

Short story long, Russel spend the next five minutes _protecting _his face from being punched repeatedly. He _did _have a flashback about his father telling him what to do if he ever found himself being repeatedly punched in the face, but another punch from Jack cut the memory off before it could reach its conclusion. Because the greenette was focusing all of his Aura towards his arms and away from the rest of his body, he was able to weather the monochrome-haired Faunus' assault for several minutes until Glynda called the match.

The rest of the class was occupied with randomly-selected matchups, though unlike the totally one-sided match between Jack and Russel, the other matches lasted ten to fifteen minutes, with five minutes maximum between each one. It was only the second week in, so all the first years were still getting a feel for one another's strengths and weaknesses. It was when people would begin planning around their opponents plans, and that those opponents would plan around the plans their opponents were planning around their plans, that the matches would begin to get more interesting and less straightforward.

Eventually, the final class of the day came to an end, and all the Teams began going their separate ways. Some aimed to get a head start on the week's assignments, while others split off to procrastinate.

Team RWBY+1 was no exception. Weiss went off to the library to collect prevalent materials, as did Blake, while Yang went off to the gym to get some training in since her own spar in Live Combat was less-than-satisfactory. This just left the first and last members of the Team, who at the moment were heading towards the edge of the Academy's northern side, having changed out of their uniforms into their casual attire.

"Thanks for showing me the way to the Forges."

"No problem, Jack. Happy to help," Ruby replied to a smile. "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Why are you bringing all those broken axe and tomahawk pieces with you?" the girl asked, pointing to the bin of broken and bent weapon parts held in the Faunus' hands.

" . . . These weapons… have been with me for a very long time," Jack answered. "Well, not _super _long, but they have a lot of meaning to me. I just don't have it in me to let their spirit die out."

"Oh, well that makes sense," Ruby replied. "What do you intend to do with them?"

"I have what I want to make in mind, but my bread and butter is going to be the axe blade, which I will forge from the most Aura-Conductive parts of my old weapons."

"Aura-Conductive?"

"Oh?" Jack hummed at her question. "Well... Wow, I assumed you already _knew_ about that since you're a weapon nut."

"I only went to Signal for two years," the red-head pouted. "I didn't have time to learn _everything _before coming here."

"Eh, probably just as well you hear it from me. Aura-Conductivity probably isn't _covered _in most schools within the Four Kingdoms, given your policies regarding stuff that's old and broken down."

"What policies?"

"You know. The practice where you get a brand-spanking-new Scroll, and when it becomes obsolete a year later you get the newest model and scrap the old one just because," the Faunus replied off-handedly. "You know. _That _old song-and-dance."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's simply a result of your culture, so I'm not blaming you for it," Jack said waving her off. "Within the safety of the Kingdom's borders, you have the _luxury _of throwing away perfectly-good stuff away in lieu of new products. In the rest of the world on the Frontier, you don't really have that luxury. You have to use something until it's good-and-done. Therein the recycling process lies how Aura-Conductivity was discovered decades ago."

"And that is?" the girl questioned.

"Okay, you know how if you apply a high flow of water onto a dry sponge, that most of the water will slide right off, while only a little is absorbed initially?" he asked, Ruby nodding her head in understanding. "Well, imagine metal as the sponge, and Aura as the water. Initially, most metals have a very LOW ability to conduct Aura into itself. However, if a piece of metal, like in a sword blade, has Aura repeatedly channeled through it over a number of years, its ability to conduct and _retain _Aura inside itself is increased."

"So what you're saying is…" Ruby hummed as the gears turned in her head. "Because your axe and tomahawk have had your Aura conducted through them for a number of years, their ability to conduct and hold Aura within themselves will be higher than a completely-new piece of metal?"

"That's pretty much it exactly," Jack replied with a nod. "Take Jaune's weapon for example. That thing's been around since the Great War, and wielded for maybe _decades _worth of fighting. Because it's had Aura channeled through it for so long, almost _all _of the Aura channeled into it will be absorbed into the metal, as opposed to a completely new weapon where a large portion of the Aura will simply bleed out of it like waste emissions."

"So then even if I replace the rest of the Crescent Rose's parts as I upgrade it, as long as I keep the blades in good condition and re-use them, their ability to have their strength and cutting power increased by my Aura will only continue to increase?"

"You're right on the money. However," he said to stop her from getting too excited. "Increasing a metal's Aura-Conductivity takes YEARS to do, and that's only if you channel Aura into them almost every single day."

"What about Soul Metal? I heard in history class back at Signal, that armor and weapons made from that was _super _powerful."

"Yeah, but the forging process for Soul Metal is like a shortcut to high Aura-Conductivity, and _those _secrets have been lost for almost a century now, what with all the looting and pillaging that went on during that time."

Ruby nodded in agreement, a great deal of art and literature from _both _sides lost during the Great War.

Right as the little lesson came to an end, Ruby and Jack came upon the Forge used for first-year students. It was a tall and imposing all-brick building, a number of smokestacks jutting into the sky from beyond the back wall, though only a few were belching out columns of smoke so early in the year. The building was maybe two stories tall and larger than most middle-class houses, though there were only windows on the first floor, and most of them were covered in soot from the inside.

"You can go back to the dorms if you want. I can make my way back from here," Jack offered.

"Not yet, I want to learn a little more about Aura-Conductivity if I'm going to be keeping my scythe blades."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The ability for a material to conduct and retain Aura within itself was dependent on a number of factors. Where it was acquired, during what season, how it was processed, the composition of the material itself, what _kind _of Aura was channeled through it, and for how long during the material's lifetime. Some went on to say that the phase of the moon during harvesting was a contributing factor, but similar to the Devil's Proof, it could not be proven, nor could it be _dis_proven.

As such, it wasn't an exact science, more of an art form for those who'd been practicing it long enough.

When Jack and Ruby entered the Forge, a wave of heat rolled over them, prompting the two to abandon their excess clothes, hanging them beside the door they came into, before bringing Jack's box of scraps over to one of the work benches.

Taking the axe blades in his hands, he held them at opposite ends, the metal glowing with a red Aura as he channeled his energy through them. With a nod, he put them down in a pile, and began to systematically test the rest of the pieces, some making the grade and joining the axe blades, while others did not and were put off to the side. Once that was done, Jack asked Ruby to conduct her Aura through a piece of metal from each pile, to get a feel of how to recognize when Aura was becoming more Aura-Conductive.

"Hmmm…" Ruby hummed as she channeled her rose red Aura through the axe blade. "My Aura's flowing through it like water," she said before returning it to its pile, and drawing out one of the handle pieces. "This one on the other hand… my Aura's flowing through it like syrup."

"You have good senses," Jack replied as he took the scrap parts off to the side and trashed them. "Obviously, when it comes to a weapon, the Aura-Conductivity of it is going to be greater towards the cutting edge, or in this case, the axe blades, since that's where I've been channeling most of my Aura. Because the bolts and nuts are smaller, they gather Aura more-readily, which is why I'm opting to save most of those."

"So what do we do now?" Ruby asked.

"Now," Jack said as he threw a white, soot-stained apron over his body, "we cut the metal into smaller pieces, and melt them down."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Cutting the Aura-Conductive pieces of metal was an easy-enough task, since the Forge had a hydraulic cutter off in the corner. It was old and worn-down, but it did the job well, breaking down the pieces of metal into smaller chunks which would melt faster than if they were kept whole-size. Once the pieces were dumped into a large crucible, what came next was using the large tongs to load it into the forge itself, and stoking the flames with the bellows.

With each press of the bellows' foot-pedal, fresh air was forced into the forge from below, stoking the fire of the carbon-laden Fire Dust. The temperature continued to rise in intensity, the waves of heat rolling out of the furnace forcing Ruby to reel back under the haze bearing down on her. Jack on the other hand stood his ground, even as his T-shirt became rife with sweat, and clinging against his muscular frame. The metal fragments within the melting pot had _just _begun to turn red, but had yet to lose their shape.

"Jack, I brought you some water! Hang in there!" the red-headed girl cheered as she ran up to her teammate, a half-dozen bottles of water in her arms. Without losing stride, Jack emptied the contents of four bottles, replenishing the bodily fluids flowing gratuitously out of his sweat glands.

"Thanks for that," Jack said as he popped the final two bottles open. Emptying them atop his head, the water quickly began evaporating as it ran down his hydrophobic hair and skin, while saturating his clothes.

"Have the metal fragments started melting yet?" Ruby asked as she took a few steps back, pulling at the collar of her blouse and fanning herself, sweat rolling down her temples, her hair clinging to the sides of her face.

"Not yet," Jack said as he continued stoking the forge. "As Aura-Conductivity increases, so too does its melting point, though how _that _happens has never been fully explained. This is the downside to recycling Aura-Conductive metal."

"Couldn't we ask to use one of those _automated _forges the third-years have?" Ruby asked, having read about some of Beacon's accommodations in a magazine article. "I'm sure if we ask Ozpin he'll make an exception."

"No way," the Faunus snapped back as he stoked the fires with a powerful stomp, another wave of heat rolling past him and washing over his teammate. "If I let a _machine _do this, the blade of my axe would weep. Some things you just have to do for yourself, otherwise it isn't worth doing."

"How can you _stand _all this heat?" Ruby asked as she fanned herself, taking another step back. "I'm cooking alive over here, and I'm ten feet away, but you're right in _front _of it."

"You should try crossing the Vacuan Dunes at high noon in the summer. The heat is _way _more intense than this," the Faunus replied as he stoked the fires, the corners of the metal shards beginning to turn white.

"You've been all over the world, haven't you?" Ruby asked as she took another step back, nearly ten feet away from her teammate. The earlier "ten feet" was hyperbole.

"Pretty much. I grew up outside the Four Kingdoms. It's survival of the fittest out there. Guys like Jaune would be dead within the first week, _guaranteed_," he punctuated with another press of the bellows.

"Did what he say really offend you that much? About Skyrim I mean?"

"What Jaune said has nothing to do with that assessment. It's just a fact," Jack said matter-of-factly as he crossed his arms. "The Frontier is harsh and unforgiving, but it's also a place of great gifts. It kills the weak, torments the slow and destroys the stupid."

"But why would anyone want to _live _out there when the Kingdoms are so much safer?"

"To escape the yoke of our _oppressors_, maybe?" Jack said flatly as he looked over his shoulder at her.

" . . . I'm sorry, that came out _all_ wrong," she said shaking her head.

"It's fine," Jack said as he turned back to the furnace, his jade-colored eyes alight with fire, the chunks of his old weapons beginning to lose their shape.

" . . . Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. I can talk and work."

"What's Skyrim like?"

"Hm…" Jack hummed. "Since it isn't one of the Four Kingdoms, most people prefer to pretend it doesn't exist. You're honestly the first person to ever _ask _me about it."

"I'm sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, we can talk about other things."

"It's fine, it's fine," Jack waved her off lazily. "Honestly, it feels kinda _good _for someone so young to be interested in the real world outside the safety of your home Kingdom."

"You're only three years older than I am," Ruby pouted, puffing out her cheeks. The sight would be kinda _cute _if her hair weren't matted against her head, her blouse one button away from becoming obscene. That sight applied to a completely _different _demographic.

'_Not on the inside, Ruby… Not on the inside,' _Jack thought to himself with a shake of his head. "Prepare yourself, Ruby Rose!" he suddenly bellowed as he whirled around and pointed a finger right at her, playing it up so he could really drive the point home. "A history lecture you can actually follow is approaching!" he announced boldly, the stoking of the forge's fire causing hot embers to dance in all directions behind him, forming a halo of light and fire that completely captivated the young woman. "First question!" he bellowed. "What was the greatest source of societal strife during the Dark Ages!?"

"Sir, the oppression of the common people and the subversion of their free will, sir!" Ruby answered with a click of her heels and a salute.

"You are… Correct! Second question!" he bellowed as another plume of embers roared behind him. "What was the punishment that awaited those who defied the corrupt monarchy!"

"Sir, jail time equivalent to their crime followed by a probationary period, sir!" she answered off with another salute.

"You are… DEAD WRONG!" he shouted, making a back-slapping motion from his wrist. "I asked you what was the punishment for criminals back _then_, not _today_!"

"Sir, my apologies, sir!" she answered with another salute, eyes watering and sweat dripping down her temples.

"Allow me to educate your ignorant psyche!" Jack snapped. "The judicial system back then was a complete and total _joke_! Modern-day witch-hunts and kangaroo courts are practically _docile _by comparison! Back then, so much as _passing _a nobleman with your head held high was grounds for public execution!"

"It was that bad!?" Ruby recoiled, the details covering the Dark Ages back at Signal rather _ambiguous _about the court system.

"Yes!" Jack answered plainly, before releasing a heavy sigh and turning his attention back to the forge before him. "Burned at the stake, stoned to death, tortured for days on end, left to rot in the dungeon, banished to the Grimm-filled wastes. If it was cruel and unusual, it was used as a punishment, guaranteed. The scars of that age that were left on my kind by yours can _never _be forgotten. Maybe forgiven, but _never _forgotten."

" . . . I'm sorry."

"Ruby…"

"Yes, Jack?"

"I never want to hear those words leave your lips ever again!" he suddenly bellowed at her.

"Wh… Wha-" the redhead gaped in shock.

"The sins of your forefathers are not _yours_ to atone for!" he announced. "It is not the place of the individual to right the wrongs of the past, but society itself! So don't let me hear those words again! Do you understand me?"

"G-Got it!" Ruby snapped off a salute, feeling as though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"_*SIGH* _Back to the topic," Jack said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, switching the leg pressing on the bellows as his thigh began to cramp. "All those things I said, that was if they were feeling _nice_. If they wanted to be real _assholes _about it, they'd exile people they didn't want to the continent off the cost of Vacuo. Skyrim."

"But what makes Skyrim different from the _other _banishments to Grimm-filled wastes?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

"What made Skyrim so special, was that it at the time, and still _is_, one of the most inhospitable places on this planet, if not _the _most," Jack answered. "Most of the year, the entire continent is covered in ice and snow. The snowstorms can last for days or even weeks, and the weather can get so fierce that the sun won't be seen for months at a time in some places. Because of the terrain and centuries of combat evolution, the animals there have evolved to be bigger, stronger, and meaner than anything else on the planet. And don't even get me started on the _Grimm_. One Grimm out there is worth ten to twenty out here."

"So then… the reason people were sent out there…"

"Is because the survival expectancy of anyone sent there beyond the first week is near-zero," Jack answered. "As such, the place made for an excellent penal colony, where the monarchies the world over dumped all their _undesirables _until after the Great War, where the practice began to peter out."

"Wait, what's a penal colony?" she asked, having never heard _that_ term used before.

"It's the same as what Menagerie was intended for, they just tried to put a positive spin on it in the hopes that the Faunus race would go there voluntarily," Jack answered. "A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populous by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. As opposed to Skyrim, Menagerie had a _temperate _climate, meaning that those who live there can do so _comfortably_, and not freeze their asses off."

"So… Why _was _Skyrim no longer used as a penal colony?" After hearing how much her forefathers wanted the Faunus to suffer, you'd think they'd want to ship them off to the most-hostile place they could think of. As cruel as it was to think along those lines.

**Cue Elder Scrolls V Skyrim OST - Dragonborn **

"After the Great War…" Jack said as he gathered his thoughts, "there was a massive rush by the four Kingdoms to acquire the resources needed to rebuild their cities and villages. Each Kingdom has about an entire continent's worth of landmass and resources to derive materials from. However, the further away you get from the livable settlements and the natural barriers that protect them, the greater the density of Grimm to each square mile becomes. As far as they knew, Skyrim was completely untapped territory, so anyone with a boat large enough made a mad dash to that corner of the world, the promise of riches drawing them there like moths to a flame. It went by a number of names, the Golden Rush being the most common, but Skyrim isn't really _known _for its gold, so I have no _clue _where _that _name came from."

"But wait, I thought Skyrim was like everyone's dumping ground for all the people they didn't want."

"That's correct. Prior to the Great War, none of the Kingdoms actually laid formal _claim _to that continent. While they were still in power, the monarchies were content to slowly amass resources, expand their territories little by little until they had a large-enough war chest to bring war to the other Kingdoms and expand their spheres of influence," Jack answered. "The mineral resources of Skyrim _alone _would've given whatever Kingdom laid claim to it an invaluable edge. However, the pros were outweighed by the cons, so Skyrim was left alone because no _single _Kingdom could make the losses worth the gain."

"Because back then it was every Kingdom looking out for themselves?" Ruby asked.

"_Now _you're getting it," Jack said with a snap of his fingers, happy that Ruby was able to piece together what the real world was like back then, instead of the over-idealized garbage that had been perpetuated for decades. "Until the monarchies were toppled, it was every man for themselves. However, when free trade began to circulate, Kingdoms began pooling their resources, and the different factions gaining prominence raised their sails toward Skyrim, drawn to the resources just beyond their borders."

"I doubt things went as well as they wanted," Ruby said with crossed arms.

"No they did not," Jack replied. "The survival rate of the prisoners dropped onto Skyrim in the centuries prior was predicted to be near-zero. Everyone assumed that without a King to lead them, the people would simply die off, that they couldn't lead themselves. However…" he said pausing for dramatic effect. "The people that were dropped there did _not _vanish into the night. Instead, they banded together, and formed working democracies _long _before the Great War came to an end. The prospectors that wanted to strip the land bare of minerals and other resources were _not _expecting for there to still be people living there. When the prospectors began to clash with the native populous, who in the eyes of the other Kingdoms were held to the same margin as the criminals who were their forefathers…"

At this, Jack trailed off, looking over his shoulder to Ruby, gesturing for her to fill in the blanks.

"Hmmmmmm…" Ruby hummed deeply to herself. Ever since she started talking to Jack, a great amount of wool had been pulled from her eyes, and more and more of the real world's darker workings began to make themselves known to her. She no longer had the same over-idealized views about her forefathers as she did before, but now knew of, and _accepted_, the cruelties that people committed against one another. However it didn't deter her in the slightest from achieving her dream. If anything, it made her _more _determined to get everyone a 'Happy Ending'. "When the prospectors and the native people clashed… another war broke out, didn't it?"

"More like a _proxy _war, but a war, nonetheless," Jack answered with a nod. Swirling the crucible inside the forge, and satisfied that the metal had been amply-liquidized, he grabbed the tongs and pulled the crucible from the heat, carefully pouring the melted metal into a mold, where it began to settle into the shape of an ingot. "I could tell you _dozens _of stories about how those from Skyrim fought for their independence, but for the time being, I'll give you the abridged version," he said wiping some of the sweat from his forehead as the forge's heat began to die down. "Though the continent was named Skyrim by the people who lived there, their _race_, after they were abandoned by their _own _Kingdoms, came to be known as the Nords. In the ancient Dovahzul dialect, it translates into "Sons of Snow". Like the name implies, the Nords had a natural resistance to the frost, in the same way that the people of Vacuo adapted to the high heat of their desert-choked climate. Nord culture centers around the quest for honor and glory, with an emphasis on the family and community. Abandoning your family and community for the sake of personal glory is considered taboo, the same as the destruction of art and forms of self-expression in the rest of the world."

"So then it wasn't just a clash for resources, but a clash of ideologies as well?"

"Yup," Jack replied with a nod as he watched the ingot of Aura-Conductive metal begin to cool. "The foreigners' more _selfish _motivations couldn't hold any weight against those of the Nords. Combine that with how the Nords could navigate the frozen tunda like _you _could through an open field, and it was no contest as to who won out in the end."

"So then the prospectors of the other Kingdoms were fighting a losing battle, and Skyrim became an independent nation after the prospectors bailed out to cut their losses?"

"Exactly," Jack said as he mussed the girl's hair. She truly _did _learn best when lectures were given in a story format. "Though Skyrim's authority beyond its own borders isn't _recognized _by the Four Kingdoms, Skyrim is still a Kingdom by its own merit, with a capital city and everything. Because the Nords were descendant of those exiled to a penal colony, most of which weren't _actually _criminals in the first place, they're slow to trust outsiders in general. They _do _still engage in trade with a few parties from the other Kingdoms, and allow outsiders to immigrate, but even the slightest form of deception toward a Nord for personal gain can get you blacklisted across the entire continent if you're a foreigner."

"What about you? You said you trained there for a while, right? How long?"

"I didn't so much go there to _train_, as I did… to get my head back on straight," he answered ambiguously. "I was strong _before _I went there, make no mistake, but living among the Nords for a year, actually _learning _about my Aura… It helped me refine my self-taught fighting style, but more than anything… it helped me find myself again after…"

"After…?"

"That… is personal, and I don't want to talk about it," Jack said as he ran his fingers through his hair. The once-melted metal had begun to harden, though waving a hand over it, it still radiated a great deal of heat. "I'll probably need to let this sit overnight before I can start working with it," he said grabbing the ingot mold with the tongs, before walking it over to a large wall of lockers outside, where there was better circulation. Carefully placing it into one of the boxes, he closed the door shut before locking it with his Scroll. Security around the forges was _much _tighter than in the locker rooms, so Jack had no worries about someone stealing his precious metal. "Well, I think that's about all we can do for today," Jack said as he headed back inside, put up the tools he had borrowed, and grabbed his hoodie from the wall, Ruby doing the same with her cloak.

"Hey Jack?" Ruby asked as they headed back to the dorms.

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"I really had fun today."

"I'm glad. The time really flew by with good company," the Faunus replied. "Maybe next time I'll tell you some stories about the Dovahkiin and the Thu'um he used to send the foreign invaders crying home to their mommies."

"Awwwwwww," Ruby groaned at the new information. "But now I wanna know _now_."

"Sorry Ruby, you'll just have to wait until next time," Jack said as he ran off with a laugh, the red-hooded girl running after him, the promise of another story like a plateful of cookies dangling before her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**For those of you who are confused about the schedule at Beacon, here's the general layout.  
1****st**** Period: 09:00-10:30  
2****nd**** Period: 10:35-12:05  
Lunch: 12:10-12:50  
3****rd**** Period: 12:55-02:25  
4****th**** Period: 02:30-4:00  
As for the classes changing out every few weeks, it's meant to reflect a Technical College where volumes of information are crammed into shorter periods, allowing a wide array of topics to be covered at a faster pace. This is also meant to reflect how some Hunters may be out on missions, but are able to receive an education regardless as their availability changes. I doubt there's only 4 classes in Beacon's curricular, so Spaceman and I set this system up in order to justify changing the school schedule periodically.**

**When it comes to the Blacksmithing… I have **_**some **_**idea of how it works, but I'm not an **_**expert **_**on the topic, so I apologize if I offended any would-be or current Blacksmiths with my potential lack of knowledge on the working process. Most of what I know I learned from How it's Made, MAN AT ARMS, and other sources.**

**As for this iteration of Skyrim as it's portrayed in-story, it's different from in Elder Scrolls, but I'm trying to stay true to some of the game's elements. Similar to Menagerie, Skyrim in-story was originally a penal colony, like Australia. The history has also been tied into the Great War as I interpret it, and I figured that people HAD to be living on that dragon-shaped continent, the promise of new lands is too tempting not to. **

**If you have any thoughts on this, or anything else, leave a Review and we can talk terms. Of course, if you're Anonymous, there's no return address, so in that case we CAN'T chat. Thus, if you want to hear from me, you'll use an actual account. I'm not going to converse with you through chapters, because that'd take a really long time.**


	12. Sibling Bonds

It was Wednesday in Beacon's second week, and classes went by that day without anything _too _spectacular going down. The only exception may've been during Glynda's class when Jack and Jaune got paired up, and Jaune ran at his opponent and screaming like a lunatic with sword overhead, only for Jack to KO the blond fop in one shot with a reverse back-kick to the face.

Apart from the **_*CRUNCH*_**ing sound Jaune made on the way down, nothing _too _spectacular.

It sounded a whole lot worse than it actually was. Instead of breaking Jaune's neck, Jack only broke his nose.

Anyway... At this moment, Jack in his casual attire was sitting on the dorm roof, leaning back against the wall over the enclosed space that led to the stairs. At his side was his school bag, a history book in his hands, eyes skimming over the parts of Remnant's history he wasn't _intrinsically _familiar with. He wasn't a brainiac like Weiss or anything like that, but he could commit things to memory pretty quickly.

Didn't chance the fact that history was a bit of a dry read though.

"Well…" Jack hummed to himself as he re-read the part about General Lagune's colossal blunder during the Battle of Fort Castle. "At least Humans didn't try and change _this _in the history books," he said as he turned the page. Humans may've been prone to alter or even completely _fabricate _their written history, but at least they knew when to say one of their own fucked up and did something stupid.

If you don't learn from the past, you're only doomed to repeat it.

"I know you're there, Yang. Come on out," Jack said as he skimmed over the next page.

"Aw, and I was so careful too," Yang pouted as she pulled herself up to Jack's level from what she had _thought _was his blind spot.

"I've got two pairs of ears on my head. Its pretty hard to sneak up on a Faunus with those attributes," he said brushing some of the hair away from his human ears, twitching the pair atop his head slightly. "So… How can I help you?" he asked closing his book.

"Just wondering what you were up to," Yang, in casual attire, said as she strolled over and sat down next to him. "Up until yesterday, you and Ruby did nothing but work on your new weapon until dinner after classes ended. Why the change?"

"Well, Weiss was bitching at me and Ruby about getting behind on our schoolwork, so I need to put my weapon-forging on hold. For today at least," Jack sighed as he put his book to the side, interlacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back. "My axe blade's already done, and we have the parts, so if I pull an all-nighter, I'm sure I can get my new axe done by Friday."

"Looking forward to the show," Yang said with a grin as she adopted a position similar to Jack's. "So… I notice Ruby's taken a real linking to you."

"That a problem?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow, his tone flat.

"No, of course not!" Yang said as she waved her hands in a placating member. After the falling-out with his old team, it was easy to understand why Jack was so quick to distrust people. "To be honest, I'm really happy Ruby has a big brother-figure in her life now. Someone there to give her a helping hand, praise her, do stuff together with," she listed off.

"You're her big sister though. Don't you two have that kind of relationship already?"

"We do, we do," Yang returned. "It's just… there's something _different _about a relationship between a sister and her older brother, you know? I don't really know how to explain it, but you can bring out things in Ruby that I just can't. Maybe praise from an older brother just has a different meaning, or something."

"I didn't have any older siblings, so I wouldn't know," Jack returned.

"You know…" Yang trailed off with a smile on her face as she leaned into Jack's shoulder. "You've really taken to the big brother role pretty well. The other night when Ruby crawled into your bed and you sketched a bedtime story in your notebook for her; so _cuuute_," the blond cooed.

"I've… had a bit of practice," Jack answered.

"Oh, I didn't know you had a little sister," Yang said with an upbeat tone.

"_Used _to," Jack corrected. "I _used _to have a little sister."

" . . . Oh," Yang returned after a moment, deflating as a downtrodden expression spread across her face. "I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's fine," Jack sighed tiredly, closing his eyes letting his shoulders slump. "My sister, she died at a… _very _young age," he said as he rubbed his face. "Maybe that's why I've latched onto Jill and Ruby the way I have. To fill this hole in my heart," he said as he scratched at his chest. "Damn, that sounded cheesier out loud than in my head," he mumbled to himself.

"Who's Jill?" Yang asked with a tilt of her head.

**Cue RWBY Volume 2 OST – All Our Days**

" . . . "

To answer her question, Jack pulled out his wallet and spilled out an accordion binder, before drawing one of the photos free before Yang could see the rest. Holding it out to her, Yang gingerly took the photo from his hands, the edges worn from numerous handlings.

The setting of the photo was a hospital room; white-washed walls, medical equipment, hospital bed, the works. Off to the left was a younger-looking Jack, maybe 15 years old, in a baggy forest green hoodie, eyes squinting slightly and a toothy smile on his face. On a small table to the right was a simple birthday cake covered in white icing, decorated with red accents and a circle of strawberries surrounding a pair of large candles shaped like the numbers **12**, the lit wicks giving off a tiny amount of glare to the camera.

In the center of the photo, sitting in a white hospital bed, was a small Faunus girl with pale skin, chin-length purple hair with black tips, and a matching set of wolf ears atop her head that drooped slightly. She was clad in a teal hospital gown, was very skinny, and a little on the sickly side. There was an IV hooked into her left arm, a heartbeat monitor on her finger, and an NC in her nostrils connected to an oxygen generator off to the side.

However, despite all the pain she must've been in, she had an ear-to-ear grin on her face, her eyes squinted shut as tears streamed down her face right as the photo was taken. Clutched to her chest was a Netking Software VR helmet &amp; gloves, colored purple, a bright green bow wrapped around the helmet. Her expression in the photo conveyed the purest form of gratitude any one person could ever feel.

The moment Yang connected all the pieces together, a hand went up to her mouth, stifling the sob that forced its way up her throat as tears began to stream out the corners of her eyes.

"Jill… was very sick when I first met her," Jack said as his own eyes began to water. "Her family had just been killed, she had no other relatives, and her health was failing. I'm not sure why I did it, but the moment I saw her, I… I wanted to be there for her," he said as tears began to stream out of his closed eyes. "I knew first-hand what it was like to lose family, and for the longest time I didn't have anyone to help me through it… I just… I didn't want her to go through it all alone," he said as he wiped his tears. "When she called me 'big brother' for the first time, I cried for what felt like hours. By the time I finally let her go, the sun had already set. And it was the happiest day of my life."

Looking to his right, he saw that Yang was practically crying her eyes out, face in her hands as tears dripped down her chin, shoulders shaking as she held back her sobs. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he put the photo back in his wallet before reaching over to his teammate. Yang's eyes widened in surprise as Jack pulled her into his chest, wrapping his arms around the small of her back, one hand stroking her hair. Sniffing loudly, Yang wrapped her arms around Jack's back, crying into his chest as she tightened her grip on her male teammate.

The blond put on a strong front, smiling, cracking bad puns, but despite all that her background was _rife _with emotional trauma.

After Ruby's mother, Summer, had been killed during a mission outside the Kingdom, her father shut down, and it was then that she learned Summer wasn't her biological mother, and that the woman who had given birth to her had also abandoned her shortly after. One day, wanting to follow up on what she thought was a clue to her mother's whereabouts, she had waited until her father left the house before loading Ruby up in a little red wagon, walking to the location until she was bruised and tired. Upon arriving, the two of them were attacked and almost killed by a pack of Beowolves, their uncle Qrow appearing in the nick of time to save them at the last moment.

Learning that Jack had lost not _only _his mother, but his little sister as well, made her realize just how _lucky _she was that Qrow had arrived when he did. That if he hadn't, those Grimm would've ripped her, and her sleeping sister, to ribbons. Just _thinking _about what could've been, what her stubborn, brash actions might've caused, made her want to break down and cry.

Hearing Jack's story… Seeing the photo of his surrogate sister, looking so sickly in that hospital bed… The overwhelming sense of gratitude Jill radiated at simply being alive… It caused all those emotions she'd been holding deep down inside to come to the fore.

**OST END**

"Jack…" Yang said as her tears finally stopped after what felt like hours of crying, even though it was only about ten, fifteen minutes tops. "Thank you… for trusting me enough to tell me this," she said as she looked up at him, her eyes a little red and puffy, a smile stretching across her face regardless.

"Yeah, well…" Jack said as he wiped her eyes with the corner of his sleeve. "I figure after I caught you at my bedside before the crack of dawn with a flashlight and a ruler in your hands, you probably deserved _something _for your efforts," he laughed as he wiped the tears from his own eyes.

"I was curious, okay?" Yang pouted up at him. "It's _your _fault for wearing such an enticing T-shirt."

"Maybe someday, but not today," Jack said as he extricated himself from her and gathered his textbooks. "Yang?"

"Yeah?"

" . . . Thanks for listening."

"You're welcome," the blond replied with a smile, remembering the warm, comforting feeling when Jack had wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey um… Sorry if I've been a little stand-offish to you," Jack said as he threw his legs over the side of the ledge. "I just… wasn't sure if I could trust you yet."

"I totally understand," Yang waved him off. "With all the crap some people pull, I'm not surprised that it's hard to trust new people."

"Yeah…" Jack said as he shouldered his bag. "So uh… Ruby's probably done brushing up on her schoolwork. Want to join the two of us in the workshop later?"

"Oh? A three-way with step-sisters? You naughty boy, you," Yang cooed with a coy smile as she bat a paw at him.

"Heheh, yeah, I guess I pretty much walked right into that one," Jack said as he scratched the back of his head. Hopping down, he looked back up to Yang who had thrown her legs over the edge, about to come down too. "So, you wanna join us for a not-three-way or what?"

"Hmmm… Sure, I'm game," Yang said with a smile as she jumped down. However, the way she did it prompted Jack to hold out his arms and catch her, lest he let her land right on her butt. "My hero," she faux-sighed wistfully as she wrapped her arms around his neck, looking deeply into his eyes and batting her eyelashes.

"Didn't take you for the damsel type," Jack quipped, feeling a little more comfortable around the busty blond after their emotional exchange. "So… You gonna let go or what?" he asked after ten seconds, the blond making no move to get down.

"Hmmm. Nope!" Yang replied cheekily.

"Nope?" Jack asked.

"Nope!" Yang returned. "You're going to have to take responsibility for playing with a maiden's fragile heart," she said lightly tapping him on the nose.

"I guess I do," Jack said as he adjusted his grip on the small of her back and the inside of her thighs. "Come on, let's see if Ruby's done yet."

"And maybe ruffle Weiss' feathers along the way?"

"Sure, why not?" Jack asked as he nudged the door open.

**One Minute Later…**

"Hey gang, guess what?" Yang said getting everyone's attention as Jack carried her into RWBY+1's room. "We're getting _married_!"

"WWHAAAT?!" Weiss yelped with eyes the size of dinner plates, Yang nuzzling her face into Jack's cheek as she pressed her chest into his and sighed wistfully. A few moments later and the heiress completely froze, Ruby waving a hand in front of her face before saying-

"I think you broke her."

"Interracial relationships will garner that kind of reaction," Blake said not even looking up from her book.

"That or torches and pitchforks," Jack replied as Yang finally let him let her down. "So Ruby, you ready to head for the workshop? Yang's joining us, by the way."

"Yes!" Ruby cheered, finally finding an excuse to ditch the boring schoolwork and do something _fun_. "Did Yang make a three-way joke when you asked her?" she asked with a serious expression, pulling a 180.

"You know me all too well, sis," Yang said sticking her tongue out of her mouth playfully. Gathering their things, Ruby, Yang, and Jack left the room, leaving behind a nonplussed Blake, and a still-dumbstruck Weiss.

A few moments later, and a small finch flew in through the open window, landing on Weiss' head and pecking at her a few times before losing interest and flying away.

"Someone should really close that window," Blake replied as she turned her page in her book.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Originally, the next chapter was going to move straight to the 2****nd**** Friday of Beacon's freshman year, with Jack's weapon finally completed and a showcase of what it can do. However, I figured I could squeeze in a little more elaboration into Jack's character, as well as some interpersonal relationship development between him and Yang. People shipping Jack &amp; Yang has been the predominant, and that makes me happy; not only because my OC is well-received, but also because people are becoming emotionally invested in a fictional character that isn't originally part of the RWBY Intellectual Property.**

**I didn't **_**plan **_**for this chapter to turn out the way it did when the topic of sisters came up (Jill's condition was premeditated, but the helmet and gloves was a new addition), but I hope that maybe it tugged at some heartstrings. I'll admit that when I was writing this part, I started tearing up a few times. Probably didn't help that I had "All Our Days" playing as I typed this up.**

**Anyway, the next chapter should be WICKED, or at least I hope it is. Be sure to leave plenty of Reviews here and later, to let me know what I did right, wrong, or just to ask any questions you might have. And if you ship anyone, let me know, I love to hear those kinds of comments because it means readers are taking a real interest in interpersonal relationships.  
**


	13. The Invincible Girl Dies

The sun was on high, the earth baked by the heat, sandaled feet from two figures kicking up dust as weapons and shields clashed in a dance old as time immemorial. All around the two figures, throngs of people by the hundreds cheered, some calling for blood, others calling for sport, but all were cheering for one or even both sides.

The first figure, a man, was tall and very muscular, clad in only a loincloth, sandals, and a helmet with a mesh visor. In his hands was a weighted net and a trident.

His name was unknown.

The other was a young woman with bright red hair and brilliant green eyes, wearing brown and bronze armor on her forearms, body, and shins, a circlet around her head, and a pair of sandals on her feet. On one arm was a Dipylon-style shield, a sword in the other hand.

Her name was Pyrrha Nikos, and this was _her _world, though for the moment she did not realize it.

"HYAH!" Pyrrha cried as, after a long and arduous struggle, she slipped under her opponent's thrown net, rammed her shield into his helmet, and snaked her ankle behind his foot before bringing him down to the ground with a **_*THUD*_**.

The man, attempting to get up, found a sandal upon his chest and a sword at his throat barring the way. The crowd erupted into loud cheers as the match came to an end, The Invincible Girl turning her attention to a lavish balcony above the masses. A shadowed figure wearing a toga and a laurel wreath raised a fist, thumb out, before raising his thumb upward.

The fallen gladiator would live this day.

"VICTORYYY!" Pyrrha cried as she rose from her opponent's defeated form, the crowd shouting- **"PYRRHA! PYRRHA! PYRRHA!" **–as she walked a circle for the crowd, arms raised, the young woman smiling broadly as she soaked up the adulation. "Are you not entertained?" she asked pumping her arms. "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?" she roared out, the crowd cheering their praises louder than before. "Come on! I'm taking all challengers! Who wishes to face me next on the field of battle?" she demanded, looking all around for whatever challenger would heed the call to mortal combat.

_***SHUNK***_

Whipping her head around at the sudden noise, Pyrrha raised an eyebrow as her eyes locked onto a sword embedded in the ground. A one-handed piece with a curved blade gleaming silver and a polished bronze guard with leather grip.

_***SHUNK***_

Whirling around again, weapons at the ready, she found _another _sword waiting for her. This one a two-handed bastard sword as tall as a man.

_***SHUNK*SHUNK***_

Moments later another two blades descended-

_***SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK***_

Three mo-

_***SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK***_

Six-

_***SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK*SHUNK***_

As suddenly as the first and second blades had appeared, soon, countless others followed. Like a heavy deluge, weapons of all shapes, size, make, and type descended from on high. So many that the sun was blotted out, the arena descending into darkness as the barrage of arms kicked up a torrent of dirt and dust.

After what felt like an eternity, the rain of steel came to an end, the red-haired gladiator bringing her shield to her chest as she looked around, no longer caring that her opponent no longer lay at her feet. Instead, her attention became fixated on the arena ground, now littered with countless blades and arms. The only ground that remained untouched, was the circle of ground upon which she stood, ten feet in all directions from herself.

"_**The Thousand Blades…"**_

'_Who said that?' _Pyrrha asked as a voice whispered in her ear. Though she could not feasibly count them all, something in the pit of her stomach told her that there _were in fact_, one thousand blades.

_***Thud***_

A single footfall echoing off the countless blades surrounding her, followed by another, Pyrrha whirled around, a path of unmarked ground where there was none before. Her eyes tracing the sudden path, came upon the iron gates that gladiators would enter through. And from the darkness, a massive hand suddenly grabbed the bars, throwing the gate upwards with a loud _***KROOM* **_that echoed through the arena as stone shook and the air bellowed.

"_**The Immortal Fool…"**_

'_Again…!?' _Pyrra snapped her head from side to side as the shadowed figure strode out of the darkness. However, something was… wrong. No matter how far he stepped out of the darkness, the shadows clung to him. All she could discern, was that the figure coming towards her had a fiercely intimidating physique, stood more than seven feet in height, and possessed long spiky hair. His attire consisted of only tan-colored pants, sandals, and a crimson headband. However, what was most-notable through the shadows, were the golden eyes staring at her.

"**So… You're 'The Invincible Girl', huh?" **the figure spoke, a smile on his face causing a streak of white to cut through the darkness. **"Well then… Let's see how you measure up to 'The Man Who Cannot Die'…" **the figure said shifting his right foot back through the dirt, drawing his arm and clenching his fist as muscles bulged, shifting like tectonic plates. **"I'm curious to see which of us caves first."**

'_You…' _Pyrrha thought, her mouth suddenly gaping as his features became visible through the shadows, which peeled away from his visage like a 'big reveal' in a movie. "You… You are…" she gaped, body trembling as more of this figure came into view. "The Strongest of Slave Gladiators…"

And as those words left her lips, before she could even say the man's name, her mind's eye suddenly opened, and it dawned on her.

'_This… This is just a dream…' _Pyrrha realized as it dawned on her. "I can win... I can do this…" she chanted to herself, smiling ear to ear like a fighter getting to live out their ultimate fantasy. "I can-"

"**Not even in **_**your **_**dreams!" **the man chuckled, suddenly upon her as he threw a right punch, his fist shattering a wall of air before it completely obliterated her hastily-raised defense. Her body sent _flying _through the air, she tumbled bodily through the veritable walls of swords, the weapons from on high scattering in all directions as she slammed into the wall with a loud _***CRASH***_

"Uuugh…" the red-head groaned as she cracked an eye open, finding herself embedded in the arena wall. "Gotta… get… free…" she said as she struggled to free herself, unable to find any form of leverage.

"**Come on, kid. This is **_**your **_**dream," **The Immortal Fool said as he strode towards her. **"Don't tell me this is all you've got," **he said as he plucked her from the wall with no effort before chucking her over his shoulder. The girl tumbling across the ground, drawing her weapons to her hands, she readied herself to face her opponent, only to find him gone. **"Where you lookin' at? I'm up here!"**

Her eyes turning skyward, the giant had leaped far above the edges of the arena's canopies, and held in his drawn-back arm, forming from streams of crimson light… A sword so great… So massive… It could slice a warship clean in twain.

His arm now thrown forward, the massive blade, hundreds of feet in length and countless tons in girth, sailed towards her, the air rumbling as it descended like a meteor from the heavens.

'_Too… Too powerful…' _Pyrrha gaped in shock and awe as the massive blade descended upon her with a loud-

_***KRAAASH***_

"AAAHHH!"

_***Thud***_

"Pyrrha? Pyrrha, are you okay!?" Jaune's voice suddenly called out.

'_Jaune…?' _Pyrrha asked as her eyes snapped back open. Looking around, the red-head suddenly found herself back in Team JNPR's room. More specifically, the _floor _of Team JNPR's room to the left of her bed, her sheets wrapped tightly around her body.

"What happened, Pyrrha?" Nora asked sitting up in her bed. "One moment you're rolling over in your bed, the next you're screaming bloody _murder_."

"I… I…" Pyrrha stammered as she shook her head. "It… Just a dream… It was just a dream," the red-headed girl sighed as she rubbed her face.

"Unlike Nora, I don't know what _yours _was about," Ren stated as he rubbed his eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No… No, I'm fine…" Pyrrha said as she rubbed her head. "Just a really strange dream," she sighed. The one warrior every Mistrali wanted to meet face-to-face, regardless of impossibility, and she couldn't even beat him in her_ own_ dreams. "What time is it?"

"Not even six yet." _***Yawn***_

And with that, Nora rolled over in her covers and went back to sleep.

Only for Ren to yank them out from under her, earning a pout from the orange-haired girl.

"Come on. We're all already up. We might as well get ready for the day," Ren suggested as he stretched, Jaune chuckling nervously as he helped Pyrrha to her feet.

"Hey um… If you don't mind me asking… What _did _you dream of?" the blond asked.

"Maybe later…" Pyrrha answered, the blond nodding in understanding. _'Still…' _she thought to herself as the people around her began to get ready for the day. _'That dream… It couldn't have been some kind of omen… Could it?' _she asked herself. _'I mean… I've only had those dreams before the big tournaments, and the Vytal festival isn't for a few more months…'_

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"Thank god it's Friday," Yang sighed, stretching her arms above her head as she ordered a double-large meat-lover's omelet from the omelet bar.

"You can say that again," Ruby yawned cutely.

"Ruby, did you pull another all-nighter again?" Weiss asked, worried that her helping of Jack was going to drag her down.

"Yeah…" Ruby answered as she rubbed her eyes. "But Jack carried me back and put me to bed, so it's all good."

"For the record," Jack said leaning into Weiss' ear. "I didn't do anything to her while she was unconscious. And before you ask _why _I'm saying this, you and I both know what was going to leave your mouth next, so shove it."

"Geez, those two are starting _early _this morning," Yang said to Blake as the dark and pale-skinned teens continued to rip into one another.

"They sound like an old married couple," Blake said off-handedly.

"Gak!" Weiss gagged, having caught the tail end of Blake's statement.

"Hey Scarface, why're you turning red like that?" Jack said putting the back of his hand to her forehead. "Fever? Rash? Your monthly?"

"D-Don't touch me!" the heiress huffed as she slapped his hand away from her face, forcing her way past him to the buffet line.

"Yeesh, what crawled up _her _scrawny white ass and died?" Jack asked as he piled his plate high with meat and pancakes. From a purely objective point of view, Weiss _did _have a regal beauty to her, from her flawless alabaster-colored skin, her delicate features, a bust size that complimented her figure quite nicely, and a tight curve under her chest that you could bounce a quarter off of.

However the fact that she was such a cold fish killed any hypothetical erection he may've gotten from thinking about her in such a way.

"Don't worry big guy, she'll come around," Yang said with a grin as she pat his back.

"I'd have to say _'fuck that' _'cause she's a flaming racist."

"Don't you mean a _Weissicle_? Eh? Eh?"

"That was so not-funny it hurts," Blake said with a neutral expression as she placed a couple tuna-fish sandwiches on her tray and an extra-large glass of milk.

'_Seriously, how has no-one punched a golf ball-sized hole through her disguise?' _Jack thought to himself as he and RWBY sat at a table, JNPR taking the row across from them. Jaune had blueberry pancakes, Pyrrha the picture-perfect definition of a balanced breakfast, Nora _–surprise, surprise- _was loaded up to her eyelids with pancakes, and Ren had a light salad which he'd dumped an omelet into.

"So, any of you have interesting dreams last night?" Nora asked out of the blue.

"I dreamed of Ice Cream Mountain, a mountain range made of pure ice cream, and each mountain a different ice cream flavor from smooth chocolate, vanilla, mint, peppermint, and dotted with rocky roads, each sweet spoonful of the terrain melting in my mouth, _haaaaaaaagh…_" Ruby said drooling slightly.

"You _really _need to get that sweet-tooth looked at," Weiss huffed at the immature things Ruby's mind would cook up in her sleep. At least when it came to _her _dream of the Rainbow Ripple, it was _dignified_.

"I dreamed of literature," Blake answered, deciding to contribute to the conversation. What she did _not _contribute was of _what _literature she'd dreamed about.

However she was only one of _two _people with perfect visual acuity in the dark, so a certain someone only had to crack an eye open to see what she was reading in the middle of the night without candlelight. Out in the open. Right next to his bed.

"Super-spy flick, Agent Double-Oh Yang," the blond said making a handgun motion with her hand and firing off a shot.

"I uh… dreamed of a superhero team-up with X-Ray and Vav," Jaune admitted, feeling a little more confident in doing so out in the open because his friends were all with him. Back in public school, talking about comic book heroes was the kind of thing you'd get shoved into a locker for.

Thank goodness public school lockers weren't _rocket_-powered.

"So… There we were… in the _middle _of the night," Nora began, leaning forward and mixing dramatic pauses into her dialogue as she set the mood.

"So Jack… Did _you _have any interesting dreams last night?" Ren saw fit to ask while Nora went on about the same dream she'd been having for two weeks now.

"I dreamed of hunting down and brutally slaughtering the racist trash that murdered my mother," Jack said without a care in the world as he violently stabbed the ham on his plate, before ripping a piece of it free with his sharp canines. Half the table was shocked to learn that Jack's mother had been _murdered_, on top of how _casually _he could talk about it, while the other half couldn't help but imagine Jack being able to rip a person's throat open with his teeth.

It probably didn't help that he'd put ketchup on it, a few spatters across his face making him look like a homicidal maniac.

Well, more of one than he already was at least.

"Aw, dude, did they go out like _bitches, _or was it slow and painful?" Nora asked with a demented smile on her face that made people at the surrounding tables _very _uncomfortable.

"What kind of messed-up question is _that_?" Weiss asked, completely aghast that any sane person could _ask _such a violent question.

"The kind that people stroke murder-boners to," Jack replied flippantly before he turned to the remaining two that had yet to answer. "So Ren, Pyrrha, what did _you _two dream about last night."

"Retired war hero of the feudal era watching the Sakura blossoms in bloom as I tended to my zen garden," Ren answered sipping his tea.

"Are we_ seriously _going to forget what we all just heard a minute ago?" Weiss asked, still completely aghast at the direction their conversation was taking.

"I…" Pyrrha stated nervously, "didn't _really _have anything noteworthy to dream about."

"Hm. So even in normal stuff like this you're _still _the nail that sticks out," Jack said idly as he wiped the blood-like ketchup stains off his face. "Good to know."

"So how _did _the guys that eighty-six'ed your mom die in your dream?" Nora saw fit to ask.

"Well, first I…"

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"The next fight will be… Pyrrha Nikos versus Jack Braxton."

And as those words left Glynda's mouth during the final class of the day, the stadium suddenly fell into a hushed silence, all combat classes in the previous week eclipsed by this single moment. Pyrrha had won the Mistral regional tournament four years running, but unless you were actually _from _Mistral, all you'd have seen were second-hand videos, which had nothing on the real thing. On the other hand there was Jack, born from one of the most violent of the Faunus races with a disposition to match, he'd all but _killed _the members of his previous Team, and in the past week he'd beaten the stuffing out of around a half-dozen students with his bare hands alone.

As the two fated to fight left their seats, the arena soon became filled with low murmurs, not only from the First Years gathered, but from the Second Years who were either sitting in or needed to make up credits as well.

"Yes! This is going to be totally _epic_!" Ruby cheered, squirming on the edge of her seat.

"Still…" Yang hummed to herself as she looked around, people beginning to trickle into the stands. "I don't like how this is turning into another spectacle," she said in a rare display of maturity.

"Hey now, it's not like he's going to _kill _Pyrrha, right?" Jaune asked worriedly.

"Hmph. As if he could," Weiss huffed as she flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Jack's fighting style is completely unrefined, zero elegance. Pyrrha on the other hand has spent _years _at the most prestigious Combat School in Mistral. That animal's reign of terror ends today," she said with a haughty tone, Blake's eyes narrowing and her knuckles whitening in the background.

"Hey, back off, Scarface!" Yang growled angrily.

"What is your _problem_?! I call it like I see it! Nothing more, nothing less!" the heiress said as she and the brawler butted heads. It was only by the presence of both Ruby, their Team leader, and Glynda, their instructor, that they did not come to blows.

"Eeeeeeeee! They're coming out! I can't _wait _to see The Ripper in action," Ruby squealed as Jack and Pyrrha began making their way out of their respective locker rooms.

"The… Ripper?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's what he calls it," Ruby said with a satisfied smile on her face as she crossed her arms. "As soon as we finished, I asked Professor Port if we could… _borrow_, one of the Grimm in storage. And Jack's weapon _ripped _it a new one!" she said with an ear-to-ear grin. The same kinda grin that a budding sociopath whose first response to something new and unusual was- "Let's kill it!" –would have on their face.

"So um… What kind of weapon are we talking here?" Jaune asked, just a _little _bit intimidated by a weapon called 'The Ripper', considering whose hands it was in.

"Uh uh uh," Ruby chided as she wagged a finger at him. "That would be telling."

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"I want a good, clean fight. Understand?" Glynda asked the two. Seeing as how Jack now had a weapon on his hip, it meant he would _not _be beating the stuffing out of his opponent with his bare hands this time around. It wasn't that she had anything _against _brawlers, Yang Xiao Long was easily within the class' top three, but there was just something so _insulting _about a Hunter-in-training getting the stuffing punched out of them like they were a green newbie during their first day at Combat School that really irked her.

"Yeah, I hear ya," Jack said as he pat the weapon at his side. Said weapon was a long-handled axe with a silver head similar to that used by a lumberjack, the handle featuring a black wooden varnish. It hung from a leather loop on his hip, handle-down and blade-forward.

"I'm ready," Pyrrha said drawing her sword and shield, Glynda announcing the beginning of the fight before stepping back.

"Hmph. Four Years Mistrali Regional Champion," Jack huffed as he drew his weapon. "Let's see how you measure up!" he shouted as he rushed at her, a blink of his eyes changing from jade to golden amber.

'_Measure up? What does he-'_

Before Pyrrha could think any farther on it, Jack twirled his axe in front of him, depressing part of the handle, the centrifugal force drawing the axe head back and out. With a _***click* **_a trigger mechanism descended from the handle body, revealing a side-loading mechanism on the left side. As the top of the axe was placed against Jack's shoulder, blade-down, the end of a long barrel running completely through the handle was leveled right at her.

_***BANG***_

A muzzle flash had Pyrrha raising her shield, years of experience guiding Akoúo̱ to intercept the shot from what she recognized as a shotgun-axe variant. However, while she had expected buckshot to cover a wide area, the loud _***KLANG* **_and jarring of her arm was the force delivered by a 12 Gauge _slug,_ hitting her hoplon dead-center. A second-later and another _***BANG* **_rung out, the ground an inch away from her toe exploding, and had she not backpedaled, she could've lost her foot with the _***BANG***_ next shot.

On the defensive, Pyrrha peeked up over her shield, her opponent continuing towards her, relieving _no _pressure as he continued to press his momentum. Another shot fired into her shield, Pyrrha observed that after each shot, Jack's left hand would raise the entire weapon up and over in a full circle, the lever-action mechanism putting a new slug in the chamber a second apart as each spent cartridge was belched out the side.

Another round fired and Pyrrha dodged left, willing the shell to go right, the slug now covered in a black aura barely grazed her shoulder. However, one footfall away from her original position and her left shoulder was struck, spinning the red-head around full-tilt and sending her tumbling backwards as his second shot found home.

'_He wasn't aiming where I was at, but where I was _going _to be!' _she realized, her opponent having now closed the gap between them completely. Axe blade twirling and gaining momentum, he aimed it in an overhead swing toward her collarbone.

Throwing herself backwards, while the force and speed of the weapon was too great to deflect its then-current path, she _was _able to push herself further away from it, like two magnets of the same polarity repelling one another. The axe head biting deeply into the ground, Jack's eyes met hers, a knowing smirk on his face as he moved forward. Intercepting a powerful side-kick with her shield, Jack's use of his axe as an anchor delivered even more power to the attack, knocking Pyrrha completely off her feet and sending her tumbling with a kick fueled by his whole body.

Flipping off the ground with her right hand, Pyrrha threw her shield like a discus before taking a knee and firing off several shots as her short sword became a semi-automatic rifle. However, not _only _was it to her surprise that Jack was able to _catch _the shield, but that he was able to flip it around and use it to deflect her own shots, before he spun his body and let the shield fly.

Akoúo̱'s razor-sharp edge bit into the arena floor like a buzzsaw blade, the Mistrali back flipping as it cut a gouge through the floor beneath her. The sound of stone breaking had Pyrrha looking up to see Jack freeing his weapon from the floor, and with a twirl the weapon was reloaded and aimed squarely at her. Caught in midair and unable to dodge, she quickly transformed her rifle into a javelin, stabbing it into the ground and using the momentum to carry her out of the slug's path, the girl freed her weapon from the ground on the second twirl while simultaneously throwing herself at Jack foot-first.

Instead of blocking her kick with the body of his weapon like she thought, Jack instead caught her right foot with his left hand, his claws digging into her boot as he twirled his weapon one-handed. The end of the barrel leveled squarely at her, she quickly changed her javelin into a sword and placed the flat against the barrel at the muzzle flash, the weapon thrown up as the slug met blade with a loud _***KLANG***_, but not out of her hands.

The Faunus still grasping her foot, Pyrrha drew her right leg to her chest, extending her left and catching him across the nose with the added momentum.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha apologized as she used his face like a springboard and flipped backward, a set of scratches now in her boot.

"Heh, no need," Jack said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "To be honest, this is the best fight I've had since _coming _to this school."

"You're quite skilled yourself," Pyrrha said between breaths, using banter to stall as she caught her breath.

"Right back at'cha," the Faunus said, doling out the first _real _compliment he'd given to any of his opponents. "However," he said as his tone turned a little less friendly. "That's as far as fighting for sport will take you," he said as he undid the clasps on his vambraces, before doing the same with his greaves and gathering them up in his left hand. "You've probably never fought another _person_ with your life on the line, have you?"

'_What is he up to?' _Pyrrha thought to herself, her opponent now only armored by his pauldrons and chest guard. Tossing his removed armor pieces in his hand a few times, he lazily tossed them over his shoulder, the four pieces hitting the ground with a loud _***CRASH* **__' . . . Whuh?' _the red-head thought to herself, internally gaping at the dust cloud suddenly kicked up, which soon cleared revealing a spiderweb of racks in the floor. "Weighted gear?!" she blurted out in shock, having never fought _anyone _who wore weighted gear _into _combat before.

"That's right," Jack replied with a smirk. "All one hundred kilos of them."

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"_Hey uh, Ren. How much is one hundred kilos?" _Jaune asked.

"_About two-hundred and twenty pounds," _he answered.

"Holy cow that's a lot!" Nora gaped.

"No way… He's bluffing, he has to be!" Weiss argued.

"And why do you think that?" Blake saw fit to question.

"Because no normal person can fight like that while weighed down so much!"

"Who said any of us were _normal_?" Yang asked as she observed the fight, Jack letting the handle of his axe slide through his hand before he grasped the far end.

"_Take hold of the world…" _someone muttered.

"Hm?" the blond then turned her attention to Ruby, the girl completely fixated on Jack's every movement, particularly the way his feet gripped the ground as he shifted his stance.

"_Leave the world behind…" _Ruby murmured as Jack suddenly disappeared.

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"_And then return to the world."_

Pyrrha felt the displacement of air to her immediate right, not even a moment after he'd disappeared. However, before she could react to it, he'd already spun on his heel, his weapon moving towards her stomach.

_***WHAM***_

When the weapon struck, it was not with the blade, but with the back, though the blunt force alone was enough to throw her completely off her feet, the girl tumbling across the ground before stabbing her blade into the ground and coming to a stop, spittle and blood leaving her lips with shaky coughs.

'_That technique… Instant Movement?' _Pyrrha realized between shaky coughs.

"What's the matter, Pyrrha?" Jack asked as he casually walked forward, suddenly flashing a couple meters to the right. "You act like you've never seen a _Shundō _in your entire life," he said suddenly flashing left twice the distance. "No wait, let me guess. During those tournaments, your lives were never in any _real_ danger, so none of the guys you beat fought with any _substance_. Am I in the ballpark?"

"Don't insult them like that!" the red-head growled at Jack's dismissal of those she'd fought and beaten before.

"Oh? What're ya gonna do about it?" the Faunus snapped back, driving his power through his legs and into the ground before suddenly disappearing in a blur.

Suddenly flashing behind her, Pyrrha felt Jack's sole on the top of her head before he drove her into the ground chin-first, her teeth rattling in her skull as she rolled forward to get away, only for Jack to flash to her side and drop his foot onto her stomach, knocking the wind clear out of her.

A foot sliding under her back and flipping her into the air like one of Iron Chef Ren's pancakes, a roundhouse back-kick into her floating rib knocked even _more _air out of her as she was sent tumbling half-way across the arena, panting and wheezing even as she rolled to a stop and clutched at her right side.

Her opponent casually striding towards her with a hand in his pocket and axe in the other, his complete dismissal of her gave the girl enough time to fill her lungs with sweet, _sweet _oxygen, before readying her sword in a dueling position. However, what she did not expect was for Jack to suddenly close the half-stage gap between them in an instant. What she expected even _less _was for him to kick Miló's pommel, sending the sword flying out of her hand, the blade embedding itself in the ceiling.

Gaping up at where her sword had flown, Jack's hand wrapping around her face caught her off-guard before she was lifted off her feet and thrown over his shoulder. The girl flipping in mid-air and landing in a crouch, seeing that she'd never be able to reach her sword, she made a mad dash for her shield, only for Jack to suddenly flash to her side, and like a five year-old, stick his foot out in front of hers, causing her to bodily land on her face. Quickly rolling to her right and righting herself to avoid Jack's downward axe strike, she saw that he had now assumed a boxer's stance, and that he had imposed himself between her and her shield.

"Come on! Don't tell me The Invincible Girl can't even get her hands dirty!" Jack taunted, egging her into hand-to-hand combat. "Show me your moves, Red!"

Seeing that her sword _and _shield were out of reach, the worst position she'd EVER found herself in, the red-haired girl assumed her own fighting stance; right foot back, left foot forward, one fist raised in front of the other. The two moving toward one another in unison, Pyrrha threw her right fist forward and connected with a _***WHAM***_, her knuckles digging into his cheek. However, Jack plowed through it, right arm drawn back before he let a hook fly, snapping Pyrrha's head to the side, her balance faltering as her ears rang and her teeth shook.

Forcing her attention back to her opponent, Jack had drawn back both arms, and bringing up her arms to her ears to prevent a discombobulating ear-strike, Pyrrha was again caught off-guard when he instead let loose a thunderous _***CLAP* **_right in her face, the force behind the Aura-fueled attack causing her vision to swim as her ears rang worse than if he _had _struck her ears. A sudden charge and Jack had delivered a brutal headbutt to her bronze circlet, a _***crack* **_hitting her ears as the material gave out.

Slapping aside Jack's next body blow, Pyrrha backpedaled, a sting of pain lancing through her head as blood began to dribble down her face, her broken circlet biting into her brow, where the blood vessels were closest to the surface. Wiping her face with her forearm as she blinked away the sudden blood, Jack suddenly came in low, raking his claws across the ground with sparks trailing before he threw his arms up.

"Ah!" Pyrrha cried as sparks and granules of stone assaulted her vision, the Invincible Girl completely blinded by such an unorthodox move.

"_**That's as far as fighting for sport will take you."**_

Jack's words rung in her ears. As she tried to blink the dust out of her eyes, the Mistrali girl focused on her remaining senses, the soft squeaking of Jack's sandals indicating that he was approaching from her left.

Leaping towards him, she lashed out with a powerful spin-kick, her greaves slamming into his left shoulder and pushing his feet to the side. Pulling her leg back before Jack could grab it, Pyrrha's vision began to clear, her bleary vision adjusting to the light as she took in the sight of not only her opponent, but the scoreboard behind him.

While in all previous bouts her own Aura had remained practically untouched by her opponent, _now_, she was largely on the ropes, here Aura having descended well into the yellow, while Jack's was still in the green.

"_**You've probably never fought another person with your **_**life**_** on the line, have you?"**_

His words echoed in her mind again, the Mistrali girl's brain connecting some of the pieces regarding how Jack had become so strong.

She still didn't know a lot about him, apart from how his mother had apparently been murdered at the hands of racist Humans, and that (anyone else) talking _about _said mother was his Rage Button. From the way he spoke, it sounded as though he'd been fighting with his _life _on the line for a long time, and not just against Grimm.

'_What kind of life… have you been living…?' _Pyrrha asked to herself. Throughout the entire match, Jack's movements weren't those of a person trying to whittle down a gauge on a scoreboard. They were the movements of a man in a life-or-death struggle, with his very survival on the line.

It was one thing to fight Grimm, but it was quite another to fight something with a Soul, intelligence, and intent.

'_I… I need to get my head in the game, or I'm going to lose-' _she said as she lashed out with a right straight aimed at his face, only for Jack to smack it aside with his left hand. Cocking his right fist back, muscles coiling and bulging beneath his clothes, even as Pyrrha tried to backpedal, Jack moved in to close the distance, the knuckles on his hand turning white as he prepared to knock her lights out.

Before he could carry through however he suddenly faltered, the soles of his sandals making a loud _***SQUEAK***_ against the floor as he suddenly came to a stop. A step taken back, Jack's eyes widened tremendously, jaw dropped and his guard completely fell. Slowly, ever so slowly, his gaze went to the right, Pyrrha's and everyone else's gaze following suit, wondering what was so captivating that it'd completely stop Jack's offensive and seizure of victory.

_***POW***_

Everyone's eyes suddenly turning back to the arena, in the one moment they'd taken their eyes off the two, Pyrrha was laid out flat on her back, while Jack's attention was re-focused on where she used to be standing, his right arm extended in the same punch he'd delayed only moments before.

'_A… A feint…?' _Pyrrha gaped in shock as her ears rung, her right cheek throbbing as the arena lights above her head spun in circles. Despite the high-pitched _***WREEEEEEN* **_that assaulted her senses, Pyrrha rolled over, pushing herself to her feet, still able to fight. There were people shouting at her from the crowd, Weiss' voice reaching her above all others, trying to tell her something, but she couldn't hear them.

Shaky on her feet like a freshly-born deer, when she turned to Jack and stopped seeing double, blinking the lights out of her eyes she saw that he'd brought up both fists in front of his face. Not only that, but he was bobbing and weaving his upper body back and forth in a sideways figure eight, ribbons of air trailing off his body with each movement, every weave drawing him closer to her until _***POW* **_he delivered a brutal right hook to her left cheek, throwing her body to the right.

Tensing the muscles in her right leg to remain on her feet, before she could turn her attention back to her opponent, a sudden left hook caught her straight in the face, another _***POW* **_echoing through the arena as she was sent reeling to the left _***POW* **_to the right _***POW* **_to the left _***POW* **_to the right-

"Dempsey Roll!" Yang cheered from the sidelines as Jack continued to deliver hook after hook in rapid succession, each weave giving momentum to the next punch, Pyrrha's face taking a beating as she was thrown back and forth with each hit, chunks of her Aura disappearing from the scoreboard as Jack's unrelenting assault continued, the Mistrali caught completely unprepared for such a brutal offensive.

The loud _***KA-SHHHH* **_of glass breaking signified the remainder of Pyrrha's Aura being completely depleted in a Guard Breaker, when Jack had reeled back and delivered his most-powerful right straight, the girl sent flying end over end through the air and outside the stage's forcefield. She landed back-first on the stands' banister with a sickening _***THUD-KRAK***_, her head draped over the edge towards the center of the arena, eyes rolled completely up in the back of her head.

" . . . Huh…" Jack hummed to himself as his eyes blinked from golden-amber go jade, Pyrrha's Aura having been in the Yellow last time he'd checked. "Guess I put a little too much into that last punch, huh?" he asked as he rolled his shoulder. "Sorry about that, Goodwitch. Guess I got a little carried awa-"

"Pyrrha! Pyrrha speak to me!" Jaune said standing over Pyrrha's beaten body, his hands repeatedly moving back and forth like he wanted to touch her, only to hold himself back each time.

" . . . Like I said before. Got a little carried away, did _not _mean for things to go this far," Jack said turning his attention back to Goodwitch, genuinely sorry for his actions.

'_Hrmmm…' _Glynda hummed to herself. _'If you want to be really particular about it, Pyrrha's Aura hadn't yet fallen into the red at the time he'd landed that final blow… and Aura _does _become weaker the further it's depleted…' _she thought to herself. "Just… try to be more careful in the future," is all she could bring herself to say.

"Yes, I will," Jack said with a nod. "So sorry about-"

"Sorry? You think '_Sorry_' will make all of this better!?" Jaune screamed at Jack from the stands, his knuckles whitening from how hard he was gripping the guardrail, the veins in his neck and forehead bulging from all the rage-fueled adrenaline swimming through his system.

"Jaune…" Jack said in a placating manner as he waved down his hands. "You've decided to grow a pair, and I'm really happy for you, but trust me… You do _not _want to do what you're thinking about doing. _Trust _me," he said as his eyes blinked back to golden-amber, recognizing the look and posture Jaune was taking as those of someone who was about to do something largely fueled by hate.

And stupid. Veeery stupid.

But right now the hate is what we're fixating on.

"RAAAAAGH!"

Roaring at the top of his lungs and showing the most backbone he had since coming to Beacon, Jaune vaulted over the side of the banister, much to his friends' objection. Rolling as he landed, the blond broke out into a sprint, Crocea Mors in hand as he vaulted onto the stage. Jack moved forward, grabbing his axe and drawing it back, Glynda moved forward with riding crop in hand, while Jaune had drawn his sword and raised it above his head.

What happened next came so fast that if you'd blinked, you'd have missed it.

Jack caught Jaune's forward ankle at the crook between the base of his axe blade and the handle, lifting it, and Jaune, off their feet. As Jaune flung his blade forward at Jack's arm, the Faunus moved forward, transforming his axe with one hand and driving the end into Jaune's mouth as he hit the floor, a sandaled foot landing on his sternum holding him in place. Glynda'd high heel caught Jaune's sword hand and brought it down to the ground, the sword clattering off to the side, her riding crop slipping its way into the trigger mechanism barring Jack's hand.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Dude, I blinked. What the hell just happened?" someone in the stands blurted out.

"_Jack…" _Glynda whispered. _"Please remove your gun from Jaune's mouth."_

"_Not until blondie calms the fuck down,"_ Jack said tapping his trigger finger in Glynda's whip, the blond at both their feet gurgling around the 12-Gauge Shotgun in his mouth with wide, terror filled eyes.

" _. . . Jaune… I get that Pyrrha's loss might be a bit shocking for you, and that her injured state would drive you into this kind of frenzy, but this is neither the time nor the place for it… As a leader, you need to have to have a calmer head than this," _the woman chided. _"If this were the real world, and you were fighting a criminal, all you would've done is gotten yourself needlessly injured, even killed… Do you understand me?" _the woman lectured.

Jaune could only gurgle, the bulging veins in his forehead and neck receding as he let his head fall back.

" _. . . Jack… Will you remove your weapon from his mouth now?" _the woman asked turning her eye to Jack.

With a nod, the Faunus lifted his weapon from Jaune's orifice, twirling his weapon and freeing the saliva from it before sliding the handle through his side holster.

" . . . Class dismissed," Glynda said adjusting her glasses as Jack removed his foot from Jaune's chest, offering a hand to help the now-calmed boy to his feet. Seeing that students from hers and others' classes were still milling about, she decided to repeat herself. "I SAID CLASS DISMISSED!" she shouted more-forcefully, a wave of Aura from the older woman causing all but the students from _her _class to scatter like cockroaches when the lights went on.

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"Well… That was a thing," Ren stated as people began to file out, the red-head of their group being carefully loaded onto a gurney by paramedics. Thankfully she had _not _been killed or her neck snapped, she'd simply been knocked unconscious from that last hit. If she hadn't been limp like a ragdoll, her injury upon landing probably would've been much worse.

"What on Remnant are you talking about!? Didn't you see what that beast did to Pyrrha?!" Weiss demanded, completely red in the face.

"Whoa, let's all chill for a moment, okay," Ruby said trying to calm everyone down. "Sure, things got kinda heated for a minute there, but Jack apologized."

"And besides, this _is _a combat class. Of _course _people are going to get hurt," Yang argued. "Or are you saying you'd raise this much of a fuss if _Jack _were the one who got beat?"

The heiress' silence was all the answer the blond needed to know.

"Hey guys… I'm back…" Jaune groaned as he made his way back up to the group. Now that his adrenaline was gone, he could feel the bruises he'd just accrued. Not nearly as bad as what happened to Pyrrha, but still pretty bad.

"Hey, Jaune. Didn't expect you to flip your lid like that," Yang greeted. "I approve. Didn't know you had it in you," she said giving her fellow blond a thumbs-up.

"Thanks… I think…" Jaune said nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

"Don't mention it," Yang said with a smile.

"Sooo… You think this had something to do with Jack's murder-boner?" Nora asked without an ounce of shame.

"Nora!" Weiss yelped in shock.

"What? It's true," the orange-haired girl said with a shrug. "Some asshole talks smack about his momma, he gets really angry and beats the shit out of them. _He _talks about _how _his mom was killed, and next chance he gets he beats the _crap _out of someone. If he wasn't getting his rocks off of a murder boner, I don't know _what _he was doing."

"Nora… I'm think you're getting a little too graphic," Ren stated.

"What makes you say that?" Nora asked, her friend pointing to a blushing Ruby causing the hammer-wielding girl to let out an- "Oh." –in understanding.

"How 'bout we change the topic," Jaune said, a little uncomfortable talking about boners around so many chicks. Especially since it _was _one of the chicks who brought up murder-fueled phallus in the first place.

"I've got one. Hey sis, what was that you were saying when Jack took his weights off?" Yang asked.

"I said that out loud?" Ruby replied before blushing. "Heheh... I uh... meant for that to be an _internal _monologue..."

"But you said it out loud," Yang replied with a shrug. "Anyway, about the thing Jack did back there, it kinda looked like _your _thing, but without rose petals going anywhere."

"That's what I thought too!" Ruby replied. "But apparently, there's this technique that strong-enough people can do, where they direct their Power of Speed and Return it to the Earth through a spiraling power where you focus your Vectors, and with it you can use Instantaneous Movement," she explained with a wide grin on her face.

'_I kinda get the feeling Jack made that up,' _the others thought.

"Instantaneous… Movement?" Jaune asked in the same tone when he asked what _Aura _was. Something that as a Huntsman-in-training he should've been as intimately familiar with as their own genitals.

"Yeah, well, it goes by a whole _bunch _of names. Soru, Shave, Shundo, Instantaneous Movement, Shunpo, Flash Step, Shukuchi Mukyo, Boundless Ground Contraction," Ruby meted out on all her fingers sans her thumbs. "Point is, there's apparently a whole _world _of fighting techniques that they don't teach in most Combat Schools, and Jack's going to teach me _that _technique! EEEE! I'm so excited!"

"But why would you need to learn something like that?" Yang asked with crossed arms. "Aren't you already fast enough?"

"I know, I asked the exact same thing too!" Ruby replied in shock. "But Jack told me, if I combine the high-speed-movement technique _with _my Semblance, I'll be able to cross continents on foot in _days _instead of weeks."

"There's no way that can be true," Weiss argued.

"Actually, there are a number of stories all over the world where individuals have reached that level of speed and ability," Ren commented. "Each country had different versions of the same technique, but after the Great War when people began exchanging knowledge with one another, those techniques became further refined as different versions contributed what others lacked."

"Yeah, and he says once I master _this _technique, he'll teach me how to fly!" Ruby said with an ear-to-ear-grin.

"Um… I'm sorry, _what _did he say he'd teach you how to do?" Weiss asked, wondering if she'd had something funky in her ear just then.

"He said he'd teach me how to fly," Ruby repeated without missing a beat.

"Right. Of course. Because that makes _total _sense," the heiress said as she palmed her face.

***GIANT-SLAYER***

"Ooogh…" Pyrrha groaned as she regained consciousness. Her eyes opening, her sight was assaulted by the glaring light of fluorescent bulbs across a white-washed ceiling, the like-colored walls hard for her then-adjusting eyes to take in. Her body racked with pain, and the bandages wrapped around her head and body, combined with the smell of antiseptic that laced the air, it took a couple minutes for Pyrrha to realize where she was.

She was in the infirmary, and she had lost.

Badly.

"It's good to see you're up, Ms. Nikos," a familiar voice spoke up from her bedside.

"Professor Ozpin?" Pyrrha gawped seeing the man sitting to her left, a mug of steaming brown-colored beverage I his hand. "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to step out of the office for a bit, thought I'd pay a visit to one of my more-promising students," the man replied. _***Siiip***_

"Ah… Thank you, for checking up on me," Pyrrha said bowing slightly, only to wince as a lance of pain shot through your body.

"In my professional opinion, I'd recommend you lay back down and get some rest," Ozpin suggested. "From what I hear, the final match of the day was quite the spectacle."

"My match…" Pyrrha groaned out as she held her head, allowing herself to fall back. "Jack… He fought like a man possessed."

"Or simply an individual trying to survive." _***Siiip***_

" . . . Professor Ozpin?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I believe you just did," the man said with a small smile. "You can ask another if you like."

"It's about Jack…" the red-head started nervously. "What did he do to get so much hate directed at him?" Pyrrha asked, remembering what he had said back at breakfast the morning prior, and what his own _Team _had done to him up to the week prior.

"He was born." _***Siiip***_

"That isn't an answer," the Mistrali scowled.

"_Isn't_ it?" Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow. "You asked me what Jack did to receive such animosity. The fact of the matter is, that Faunus are persecuted against simply _because_ they exist. Different from the Humans that dominate most of the habitable world," he explained. "We're making small steps to bridge the gap, but unless more people like Ms. Rose, people who can look past the differences between Human and Faunus, take to influential positions in the future, it will be a very long time still before we can see the divide bridged."

"I… see what you mean…" Pyrrha replied. While she didn't go out of her way to _ignore _Faunus, she didn't necessarily go out of her way to _help _them either. "Jack… He was so strong…"

"Strength is often the result of overcoming great adversity, not simply the result of one's training and upbringing," Ozpin replied. "It's true that you are very strong for your age. Stronger than a great deal of your peers during their first year at Beacon. However…" he said adjusting his glasses. "Those who grow up within the confines of the Four Kingdoms, safely coddled away from the dangers of the Frontier, will invariably find their capacity to grow in strength stymied by the softness of their surroundings. Similar to the Nords of Skyrim, the constant struggle for survival makes those who grow up in the Frontier quite powerful. Not because of the differences in how they live from us, or even how they are raised, but out of necessity for the most basic and eternal form of motivation there is. Survival."

"I see…" Pyrrha replied as she stared at the ceiling. "Is… Is it common? For Faunus to have their parents murdered I mean?" she asked, the word leaving a foul taste in her mouth. Like Ruby, she wanted to see the best of people. However, unlike the younger Huntress-in-training, Pyrrha knew that some people would only befriend others for their own benefit, and were quick to betray your trust.

It had happened plenty of times in the past at the beginning of her career, which was why she valued true friendship all the more.

"More common than I want to admit," Ozpin said, shaking his head sadly. "The scars of the Faunus War run deep, and those who have experienced loss think the only way to make the pain go away, is to do to Faunus what was done to them." Raising his cup to his lips, he stopped halfway as he set his mug on the table, letting out a tired sigh. "In that way, the White Fang are _right _about us Humans. Same as how they may be right in that the only way to achieve equality… is through force."

"But I'm sure if both sides were willing to sit down and talk things out, that bringing about equality wouldn't be as hard as people make it out to be," Pyrrha said in a hopeful tone.

"In a perfect world, that would be true," Ozpin replied. _***Siiip***_ "However, ours is _not _a perfect world. We espouse peaceful resolution, but are quick to turn to violence. Not once in our history, since the end of the Dark Ages, was war ever averted by words alone. Delayed, yes, but conflict would eventually come about. Kind words, regardless of their intent, are ultimately only words that hold no true power."

"I… That…" Pyrrha said trying to find the words. "No wonder… Jack became the person he did," she said realizing the truth in Ozpin's words.

"Hm. Yes," Ozpin replied as he rose from his seat. "Something I find truly surprising about him, is that he did not become something worse."

"Something worse…?" Pyrrha asked, before realizing just what kind of foe someone with Jack's background would become.

He himself had admitted that his mother was murdered. Not that she had died, but that she was _murdered_, and that she had been killed simply for being a Faunus. Up until that moment, she'd only thought of it from a _Human _perspective. What it'd be like for a _Human _to lose someone close to them. But Jack wasn't a Human, he was a Faunus, and that very divide made the affront against him all the more painful. All the easier to hold an entire species in contempt over. What his own first Team had done to him only reinforced that sentiment all the further.

It only took her a second _more_ to realize, that if she ever _did _cross paths with the White Fang, she was likely to face _many _people who had experienced loss at the hands of Humans. That in a way, their motivations for fighting were _justified_. And that no matter what she said, or did, the wrongs that Humans had done unto them would not disappear.

"Well… I hope you get better soon, Ms. Nikos," Ozpin said rising from his seat.

"Thank you for checking up on me, Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha said nodding her head. After the numerous kicks and stomps Jack had dealt her, bowing would be too painful. A few moments after Ozpin left, Jaune, Nora, and Ren came into the room.

"Pyrrha, you're up!" Jaune said running over to the bedside. "Are you okay? Does it still hurt?"

"I… feel worse than the damage actually is," the red-head said trying to brush off her injuries. No need to make her teammates worry needlessly, right? "I'm glad you came to visit me."

"Of course we'd visit you. You're our friend," Nora replied with a cheesy grin. "Ren made pancakes!" she said whipping out a covered plate, the top removed revealing a stack of steaming hot pancakes with butter and syrup on them.

"Nora thought it'd make you feel better," Ren said plainly.

"It does, I really appreciated it," Pyrrha said as she sat up, suppressing her wince as she dug into her treat. "So… What happened after that last attack? My memory… gets a little fuzzy at the end," Pyrrha said rolling her wrist as she tried to find the words.

"Well, after Jack hit you with a Dempsey Roll, Jaune went totally _bonkers _and attacked Jack out of nowhere," Nora explained, causing Jaune to choke on the air he'd breathed in. "He didn't seem very interested though, so Jaune went down real easy after Jack and Glynda double-teamed him. He took one really hard in the back," the orange-haired girl said jabbing a thumb at Jaune.

"Nora!" Jaune cried in shock. "That is _not _how it happened!"

"Actually, that seems like a very _good _approximation of the after-match show," Ren said, if only to back up his childhood friend.

"Ooogh…" Jaune groaned, even though the two were right. At this Pyrrha could only laugh. It wasn't _at _Jaune though. Instead she was _happy_. Happy that she had such good friends around her.

"So," Pyrrha said wiping a tear from her eyes once she got her good laugh out of her system. "Did anything interesting happen while I was out?"

"Nothing. Unless you count Weiss trying to rip Jack a new one," Ren stated simply. "Keyword being _tried_. He seemed pretty adamant about ignoring her."

"Ah, I see," Pyrrha replied. "So, when do you think they'll let me go?"

"According to your charts… you should be fine by Sunday evening, as long as you get plenty of bedrest," Ren said looking at the clipboard on the foot of her bed. "The might let you return to our room tomorrow morning, but don't quote me on that."

"Since you're staying _here_, that means you can eat all the ice cream you _want_!" Nora said with a wide grin.

"That's only if you have your tonsils out," Ren corrected, causing Nora to slump slightly.

"Hey Pyrrha…" Jaune said as Nora and Ren went off into their own line of dialogue. "You okay?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" the red-head asked.

"Well… I mean, your undefeated streak kinda ended today," the blond said scratching the back of his head. "If I were in your shoes, I'd be kinda bummed out," he said with a sigh. Deep down, he also felt bad that he hadn't won _one _match since coming to Beacon.

"Most people _would _be, but… I'm actually _happy _that I lost," Pyrrha answered, much to Jaune's confusion. "It means that I can still improve, and keep getting stronger," she said pumping her fist, only to wince as pain shot up her side.

The Mistrali girl may've been _glad _she lost, but waking up in a hospital bed still sucked in the end.

***GIANT-SLAYER***

**Cameo in the beginning! Can you Guess Who?**

**On note of Jack's axe-gun, the inspiration came from one part ****Terminator 2: Judgement Day****, and another ****Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer****. The axe-twirling was inspired by the latter where our 16****th**** president used this move to carve through the blood-sucking undead like cherry trees. The reloading was reminiscent of the prior, where the T-800 Terminator portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger twirled his Winchester 1887 shotgun with the lever-action reloading. The weapon is essentially a mix of both, in case you have a hard time visualizing it.**

**Anyway, hope you tell me what you think of that fight scene, as well as the foreshadowing and dialogue that came before, and whether or not I've made any improvements. Looking forward to the Reviews from this one, so please R&amp;R!**


	14. One Battle Leads to Another

_*YAAAAAWN* _Yang yawned the following morning, the sun well above the horizon, her hair a ruffled mess in all directions. Stretching her arms above her head, she popped the kinks out of her spine, arching her back like a cat before slumping forward tiredly and licking her lips.

"You're finally up, I see," Weiss said from the front of the room, dutifully studying her notes at her desk.

"Oh, morning, Weiss," Yang yawned as she hopped off her bed and made her way to the bathroom. "Where are the others?" she asked looking around, seeing no-one else present.

"Blake went into town to run errands after an early breakfast," Weiss answered turning a page. "As for Ruby and… Jack," she said trying to say his name in a less-hateful tone. At Ruby's behest. "I believe they went off to the school's sandlot. Jack said he was going to train Ruby in Instantaneous Movement," she said in a somewhat-disbelieving tone.

"Oh, well maybe I'll drop by and see how her training's doing," Yang said heading for the shower. "Oh, that reminds me," she said stopping short of the door. "I was actually thinking of heading into town to pick up a couple of things myself. Need me to get you anything?"

"Me?" Weiss asked, surprised that Yang even asked. "I… um… Thank you for the offer, but I'm good, really," the heiress returned, still a bit unused to people extending kindness to her for reasons _other _than her heritage.

"Oh, well, if you change your mind, give me a ring," Yang said crossing the threshold.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, towards the edge of Beacon at an unoccupied baseball diamond, Jack was sitting in the shade of one of the dug-outs, a textbook in his hand and a to-go box filled with bacon at his side. Out on the bases was Ruby, zipping around and around as quickly as she could go, nary a rose petal in the air to her movements.

"Uwah!" Ruby cried as she flickered back into view with a _***FWISH***_, only to trip and fall on her butt. "Jaaaack… What am I doing wrong?" she whined as she clapped dirt off her butt. Instead of her usual combat skirt, she instead opted to wear a red hoodie, black shorts, and red black-accented sneakers. With all the dirt she had gotten in them, she was glad she heeded Jack's advice.

"You've got the Entry down to a T, but if you can't get the Grip, all you're doing is throwing yourself into the ground," Jack said between his book and his breakfast. His attire that day consisted of faded jeans and a black T-shirt with a Beowolf pattern on the front. His weighted armor was absent, it being the weekend and all.

"Well, how did _you_ learn this?" Ruby asked, a little miffed at how effortless Jack had made it look in his fight against Pyrrha.

"When my uncle taught it to me, he told me to kick off the ground at least ten times in the blink of an eye," he answered, Ruby's eyes going the size of dinner plates. "Fortunately, I found a bit of a workaround when a wandering martial artist happened to see me. Taught me a very useful trick."

"Trick? What trick?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

"The trick…" he said rubbing his chin as he tried to find a way to word it. "The trick is in the toes."

" . . . Whut?" she said dumbfounded.

"Alright, look," Jack said stepping onto the field and slipping out of his sandals. "Instantaneous Movement is divided into two parts. The Entry," he said disappearing in a _***FWISH* **_"And the Grip," he said appearing right next to her. "The thing about stopping is at _this _moment," he said standing on his right foot, pointing at his foot with his left big toe. "The moment you hit the ground, you have to give a quick twist of your toes," he said raising his foot and curling his piggies.

"Oh, is that all?"

"You'd think that, and I did too, but it is _way _harder than it looks," Jack replied. "You have to do it softly, but in a split-second. That split-second is when you bring all the Vectors together, but for _that _you have to be just as good with your toes as you are with your fingers," he said wiggling all five toes in different directions simultaneously.

"That's so cool!" Ruby cried. "A little _gross_, but cool! And you say I need to do that with _my _toes for Instantaneous Movement?"

"Well, it isn't so much your _toes _as it is he _pressure_. Sure, you've got a better grip on the ground with your bare feet, but you can _still _hurt yourself if your foot hits something. Like a rock. Or a caltrop," Jack lamented with crossed arms. "Anyway, I spent about six months living life with just my feet, no hands."

"Yeesh. Sounds rough."

"Not really. What _really _hurt was people's stares… At least if I _cared _about what they thought of me," he said with a shrug. "Point is, I took to road least traveled, and I saw the Promised Land."

"So… Am _I _going to have to use nothing but my feet for six months?" Ruby asked feeling a little self-conscious. Between being the Bee's Knees and a Social Outcast, she'd sooner have the non-normal knees option.

"Well, your Semblance is all about high-speed movement, so you should be able to get the grasp of it faster than I did, pun not intended," he reiterated. "As for training your pedal dexterity… I'd limit that to the room where no-one can see. No need to tank your reputation in freshman year on _my _account."

"That's a relief," Ruby said slumping your shoulders. "Any exercises you'd recommend?"

"Hmmm… I guess you could do easy stuff, like brushing your teeth, or cat's cradle, or using chopsticks to eat with."

"That's _easy_?" she asked with a tilted head and a raised eyebrow

"I recommend washing your feet first. Clean toes are happy toes," Jack said slipping back into his sandals.

"Hmmm… How do I know if I'm doing it right?" Ruby asked.

"When you can do _this_," _***FWISH* **_"Without kicking up a cloud of dust," he said flickering to one of the bases, a very _small _cloud of dust kicked up in his wake. "The more of it you kick up, the more energy you're wasting. And when it comes to _Void _Instant Movement, wasting energy is the _last _thing you want to do."

"You mean the _flying _thing?" she asked with stars in her eyes. "Wait… How do I know you're _legit_?" she asked narrowing her eyes at him. Back at Signal, upperclassmen had yanked her chain a couple times before. When Yang got through with them, it was _not _pretty.

"What, you don't believe me?" Jack asked with a tilt of his head, his ears twitching slightly as he heard a light _*__**crunch* **_"YANG!"

"What?" said blond asked from the dugout, a piece of bacon in her mouth with her fingers reaching for a second piece. Her attire for the day consisted of denim booty-shorts, a black tube top, and a brown leather jacket showing off her midriff.

"Stay away from my bacon!" he shouted with a finger pointed at her.

"Oh yeah?" she asked reaching slowly for another piece. "Just try and stop me!"

" . . . Ruby, watch me carefully," Jack said as he shifted his feet, his toes gripping the ground through his sandals. The next moment he was off like a shot, and appearing back in sight, he flew at Yang feet-first. The girl tossing the to-go box into the air, she crossed her arms in front of her face to block, only, instead of the _***BAM* **_that would've come from blocking, he instead kicked off with a _***THMP***_. What's more, he didn't even _touch _her, but kicked off the air instead, grabbing his to-go box on the way up.

"Whoa!" Ruby awed as Jack kicked off of thin air. A series of _***TAK*TAK*TAK*TAK*TAK* **_sounds followed as Jack kicked off the air like he were wall-jumping, going higher and higher until he was about a hundred feet above the ground, his back to the ground as he faced the heavens. Before gravity could take hold of him, he angled himself before kicking off the air like a glass ceiling, sending himself careening down straight toward Ruby. "Kyah!" she yelped as her friend barreled down towards her, cracking an eye open behind her guard to see a ring of smoke leaving Jack's foot as he kicked off the air in front of her face before he flipped around with his legs drawn in and his arms out, striking a pose on the dismount.

"And _that_, my dear Ruby, is Void Instant Movement," Jack said, left foot forward, right foot back, to-go box in his right hand, while his left arm was up in a thumbs-up.

"So cooool…!" Ruby gaped with stars in her eyes.

"Holy crap, you really _weren't _joking about teaching her how to fly…" Yang said totally slack-jawed at the display. If she hadn't seen it herself, she would've called bullshit.

"It's like I said before, there's an entire _world _of fighting techniques that you," he said pointing to them both, "don't know yet," he said taking a seat in the dirt and rubbing his legs. "Ow. Probably should've stretched a little."

"Hey, you okay?" Yang asked, getting over the display she just saw.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit out of shape is all," Jack said getting to his feet.

"Out of shape? You fucking _flew_! If _that's _out-of-shape, I wanna see what you can do _fit_!" Yang gawped.

"Really, Yang, it isn't all _that_ impressive," Jack waved off. "The guy I learned it from could break the sound barrier without breaking a sweat. If the guy had a pressure suit, he could probably jump to the _moon _if he wanted."

"That… sounds… AWESOME!" Ruby squealed at the idea of traveling to the moon. Atlas was the closest, but they were still working on getting animals to and from space without them dying somewhere in-between.

"So… Think you've got something in your back of tricks for _me_?" Yang asked, batting her eyelashes as she pointed to herself, leaning forward slightly and making a cute face.

"I… may have something…" Jack said trying to tear his eyes away from the girl's exposed cleavage.

'_Phase One: Complete,'_ Yang thought with a smirk, chuckling at how Jack's head bobbed as she rose to full height. "So guys, I was thinking we could head into town later. Get something to eat, maybe do a little shopping?"

"Yeah, sure. I could stand to go out, stretch my legs a bit," Ruby said leaning on her heels. "Oh! And there's this new comic I've been meaning to buy, so this works out _great_!"

"I'm… I'm flattered, really, but maybe I should sit this one out," Jack answered. It wasn't that he _didn't _want to come with them, but he just didn't want to ruin their day out with his presence.

"Jack, if this is because you're a Faunus, Ruby and I don't _care _about that. You're our _friend, _and no-one will change that!" Yang said pointing a finger at him. "You're coming to town with us, and anyone that has a problem can shove it!"

"Yeah! Screw those guys!" Ruby scowled, an indignant fury Jack had never seen before present in her eyes.

"Wow… I…" Jack said totally dumbstruck. "Thanks. That means a lot to me," he said with a smile.

"Great, then it's settled," Yang said with a smile. "Let's get our stuff together and head on down to Vale on the next airship."

"Yay, road trip!" Ruby cheered.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

An airship ride later, and Ruby, Yang, and Jack had disembarked at the Vale skyport, Bumblebee and Black Horse in tow. Ruby had grabbed a red motorcycle helmet with a black visor and matching rose emblems on the sides, and was riding behind Yang. Jack had thrown on a dark-green leather jacket for a windbreaker and rode behind them.

"So… Where do you want to go first?" Yang asked as Jack came to a stop beside her at the red light.

"I'm up for anything but the Industrial District," Jack replied.

"Oh? Any reason in particular?" the blond asked.

"There's something there I'd rather avoid," he said checking his Pocket Scroll.

"Oh! There's this café down the road that sells the _best _cake!" Ruby exclaimed. "Uncle Qrow took me there one time, it's called the Sunset Terrace."

"Hmmm… Sure, I could go for a little atmosphere right about now," Yang shrugged as she headed off at Ruby's guidance, Jack following behind her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The Sunset Terrace was a pretty nice café somewhere between the Commercial District and the Upper-Class district. Like its name implied, the balcony outside the top floor faced the west, giving a pretty spectacular view of the horizon where the sun would set each evening. The décor was mostly slate-colored brick and white masonry walls with wooden awnings and blue-shaded windows, the furniture inside and out made of dark wood with white-padded chairs, gothic-design fences on the outside. There were even a few potted plants for a touch of greenery.

All in all, a pretty classy place. Not necessarily the kind of place people went to eat whole _meals _at, but a nice quiet spot in Vale for friends to gather and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee.

"I think I saw a table on the roof. Come on!" Ruby said leading Yang and Jack in, the crowd of three making their way past the patrons on the first floor before ascending the stairs to the balcony. Lo and behold, there was in fact a table for three on the balcony that was still vacant, situated in the center of the establishment's upper tier.

"Hey sis, what was Qrow like when he took you here?" Yang asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... Did he act any differently?"

"Hmmm... Not that I know of," Ruby replied as she stroked her chin. "I remember he took me here to celebrate building my sweetheart," she said lovingly stroking her Crescent Rose. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," Yang brushed off as she took in the atmosphere. Compared to where her uncle had taken her for _her _coming-of-age celebration, the Sunset Terrace was _way _different than the Crow Bar down by the docks. That Flanders guy could make a mean Strawberry Sunrise.

"Good afternoon, girls. Can I take your order?" a woman with brown hair in a ponytail and glasses on her face asked as she came up to the trio. Her attire consisted of a white dress shirt, a black skirt, a maroon apron, matching stockings, and black shoes.

"I think I'll start with a Milk Tea," Ruby replied looking over the menu on the table.

"I guess I'll have the same," Yang replied with a shrug of her shoulders. Strawberry Sunrise wasn't the _only _thing she liked. She could be lady-like too.

"Very well. I'll have your orders out in a bit," the waitress said to the sisters with a smile on her face, before spinning on her heel and walking off.

"Hey wait, my friend hasn't ordered yet," Yang interjected.

"Yeah… No," the woman said with a flat look, casting a glance at Jack before turning her attention back to the blond. "We don't _serve _his kind here. If you want to stay, that's fine, but your… _friend_, will have to leave," she said derisively, the look she gave Jack like one a person would give to rubbish on a street corner.

"What?!" Yang growled angrily, embers dancing off her hair for a brief moment and her eyes flashed red.

"The Sunset Terrace reserves the right to deny service at our own discretion," the woman calmly replied as she adjusted her glasses. "There's no law against that."

"Bullshit! You're being racist and you _know _it!" Yang fumed, embers dancing off her hair once again.

"Yang, it's alright, I'm used to this," Jack said tucking his helmet under his arm, trying to defuse the situation. "I'll wait by the bikes. We can leave when you're done."

"No way!" Yang said slamming her palm on the table, garnering the attention of the other patrons when it almost split with a loud **_*CRACK*_**. "_She _might think it's fine to brush you off just because you're a Faunus, but I am _not _cool with that! You deserve better than this!" she said rising from her seat.

" . . . The cake isn't _that _great, anyway," Ruby said with a nod as she got up from her seat, the three leaving the Sunset Terrace, everyone else giving them a wide berth, while the waitress from before was left angrily clutching at her notepad.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"You didn't have to do that, you know," Jack said a minute later as he followed the others away. "I'm used to getting brushed off like that."

"Maybe, but we still _wanted _to," Yang replied as she drummed her fingers on the Bumblebee's throttle.

"Yeah. I lost my appetite anyway," Ruby huffed. The way that waitress utterly dismissed Jack like that made her sick to her stomach. No way she could enjoy her cake like that.

"You think they'll change their policy any time soon?" Jack asked as they came to a stop at the red light.

"Hmmm… Maybe," Yang said looking over her shoulder, Jack and Ruby's gazes following, seeing a large number of people beginning to file out of the Sunset Terrace and scatter, conflicted looks on their faces. "Maybe they just needed someone to say what was on their minds."

"Maybe. Maybe," Jack hummed as he turned his eyes back forward. "Sorry I ruined that place for you, Ruby. I could tell that place held some good memories for you."

"Jack, it's okay, really. Uncle Qrow will understand if I don't want to go by there again," Ruby said waving it off. "I just wished I'd noticed it sooner… But I guess I was too busy stuffing my face to really care."

"Hey, come on now, there's no way you could've known," Yang said over her shoulder. "We'll just have to find somewhere _else _to get cakes in town. There's this nice diner by the bridge that I _know_ won't have a problem with Jack."

"It's comforting to know that places like that haven't been shut down," Jack said with a nod as the light turned green.

"So… Where should we go now?" Ruby asked.

"Hmmm…" Yang hummed. "How about the bookstore?"

"Sounds good. I know a place," Jack replied.

"Well alright then. Lead the way," Yang said letting the Black Horse take point.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_***Ding*Ding***_

"Welcome to Tuckson's Book Trade, Home to Every Book Under the Sun. How can I help you?" Tuckson greeted as Yang and Ruby filed in.

"Just here to hook up my friend here with a new comic book," Jack said closing the door behind him as he ruffled the girl's hair.

"Jaaack…" Ruby whined as her hair was mussed up.

"Aw c'mon Ruby, don't make that face," Yang cooed as she messed up Ruby's hair as well, a pair of ears perking up in the corner of the store.

"Ruby? Ruby Rose?" the only other person in the store said drawing the three's attention.

"Arthur?" Ruby asked turning away from her sibling and friend. "Arthur! It's so great to see you!" she said with a bright smile as she ran over to him. "Wow, what're the odds of running into each other like this?"

"Pretty low," the one identified as Arthur said scratching the back of his head. He was a young man no older than Ruby, about the same height as well with light skin, crimson eyes, and messy snow-colored shoulder-length hair. His attire consisted of a blue hoodie with a white lab coat thrown over his shoulders, creased black pants, and matching shoes. There were a pair of swords sheathed at his sides, the handles and scabbards both colored blue with gold trim. "Its… um… really great to see you…" he said twitting his thumbs, his face gaining a reddish hue, the rabbit ears sticking out of his hair twitching slightly.

"Y-Yeah, you too," Ruby replied nervously, finding the end of her right shoe suddenly very interesting, the two unable to meet eyes for more than a couple seconds. "So um… What're you doing here?"

"Oh, uh, just picking up the latest volume of Avalanche," he said holding up an eastern graphic novel featuring a spiky-haired man with a giant sword fighting a monster, the word **AVALANCHE** in bold writing across the top styled like metal complete with bolts at the corners. "What about you?"

"Oh… you know…" Ruby said shuffling her feet nervously. "Just picking up the latest issue of Sniper King," she said grabbing a comic book from the shelf by the window, the front depicting a man with a bright yellow mask, a red mantle, and a large staff with a split curved end shaped like the horns of a kabuto beetle.

"Oh! Well um… Hey, it's been a while since we last saw each other. How about I buy it for you, maybe get caught up?" he asked nervously.

"Ah-oh, you don't have to do that," Ruby said nervously as she hid her face behind her comic. "Well I mean… If you really want to I guess it'd be alright," she said looking up over the cover. " . . . How've you been?"

"_Awww. So cuuute~"_ Yang cooed quietly as the two continued to act bashfully with one another.

"_A friend of hers from Signal?"_ Jack whispered.

"_Yeah. Ruby doesn't wanna admit it, but Arthur's the only boy who isn't 'gross' to her anymore," _she said making air quotes._ "Those two are so _cute _together."_

"_And she isn't concerned he's a Faunus?" _Jack asked before slapping himself on the forehead. _"Right, duh. Of course she isn't."_

"_Why don't we leave these two alone, let them catch up," _the blond said making their way over to the counter, Ruby and her ex-classmate making awkward small talk by the comics and graphic novels section. "So, you Tuckson?" she said turning her attention to the store-owner.

"Yes ma'am," he replied.

"I was wondering if you could direct me to the…" she said looking over her shoulder. _"Mature collection," _she said in a hushed tone.

"I'll need to see some ID," the man replied, Yang and Jack pulling out their Hunter (-in-Training) Licenses. It was essentially an ID card distributed by the Hunter Association that exempted Hunters and Hunters-in-Training from various age restrictions. Something about how if they're old enough to slay monsters, they should be counted as old enough to do... well... just about anything else. Within legal limits of course. "Alright, you two check out. Right this way," he said guiding them around the counter to the door at the back of the shop. "Remember, this is a _family _store. I don't want you getting too _frisky_ back there."

Given where he was leading them, he felt it needed to be said.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about _us_," Yang said before looking over to Jack. "There are _other _places the two of us can get… acquainted," she said winking at him.

"Yang. Behave," Jack chided playfully.

"_Both _of you behave, or I'll take out the hose," Tuckson commented.

"Can anyone say Wet T-Shirt Contest?" Yang questioned as Jack opened the door for her.

"Maybe later," the Faunus chuckled. The room for the Mature section was obviously isolated from the rest of the store, the walls covered in shelves bearing numerous _risqué _works of literature, while a door further to the back was labeled as **Employees Only**. "So… What're you in the market for?"

"Oh… Just my own guilty pleasure," Yang said before turning around to face him. "I'm surprised _you _came back here. Don't you know that erotic novels turn upstanding gentlemen like yourself into perverts?" she asked mock gasping.

"Erotica doesn't _make _perverts. It simply rouses their curiosity," Jack returned. "Isn't that right? _Blake_!" he asked before looking over his shoulder to the room's only other occupant, who was facing one of the corners. Said occupant was wearing a tan-colored fedora and a matching-colored trench coat, obscuring most of their body aside from their wavy black hair, purple-colored stockings, and black low-heeled boots.

"Uhh… _Blake_? I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about," the figure said in a deep voice.

"Blake, I know it's you. Give it up," the Faunus said with a flat expression.

" . . . " _*Sigh* _"How did you know it was me?" the person in the corner said removing their hat and turning around, revealing that they were in fact Blake Belladonna.

"One: You smell like tuna," Jack said raising a finger. "Two:... I'm not an _idiot_."

"Ah ha! I knew it!" Yang said pointing at the book in Blake's hand, which the girl was quick to hide behind her back. "I thought I recognized that book cover!"

"D-Don't take that tone with me!" Blake said with a flushed expression. "You're here for the same reason _I _am!"

"Yeah, but _I'm_ willing to admit it," Yang said with a cheeky grin, crossing her arms as Jack perused the shelves. "So... Which volume are you on?"

" . . . Ninjas of Love: Nobunaga Oda's Third Volley," Blake admitted after a few seconds.

"Hey Yang, do your books have any identifying markers?" Jack said pulling books from the shelves before putting them back in.

"Two zeroes, a seven, a dash, and then a one," the blond replied.

"Oh, then you'll want to check he corner over there," he said pointing a little ways away from Blake.

"Thanks, Jack," Yang replied with a nod before going over to the aforementioned corner. With that dialogue exchanged, the three teens went about searching for their erotic novels, Blake and Yang already knowing what they wanted, while Jack opted to browse.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Did you find everything you were looking for?" Tuckson asked as the three came out.

"More or less," Blake said morosely, if only because her dirty little secret had been discovered.

"I'd also like another copy of that Grimm bestiary you pointed me to on my first day back," Jack added.

"What happened to the first one?"

"What do you _think_?" Jack asked as he rolled his eyes.

"Right… Sorry about that," Tuckson said scratching behind his head. "But hey, I caught your fight on the net. Good job," he said giving the young man a thumbs-up. "I don't know the _whole _story, but I figure they deserved it. Sorry they destroyed your stuff."

" . . . Thanks," Jack replied with a nod, before turning his attention over to Ruby and Arthur, who appeared to be more comfortable with one another now. "So Yang, mind telling me how the two of them met?"

"It isn't too complicated," Yang said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Some bullies were pulling on Arthur's ears and calling him a freak, Ruby helped him get away and put some ice on them, he helped her with her math, and they've been tight ever since," she summarized.

"Hm," Jack hummed, a small smile on his face. "Good for him. Good for him," he said with a nod as Yang walked over to the two.

"Heeey. What's up doc?" Yang greeted to her sister's friend.

"Yang, we've been over this. I'm not a real doctor," Arthur pouted slightly.

"But you helped wrap up my hand after I busted it that one time," the blond argued.

"That was me acting as a medic."

"What's the difference?" the blond asked.

"Well, doctors _cure _people. Medics just make them more comfortable as they die," the white-haired teen explained.

" _. . . Never get shot," _Ruby whispered over her shoulder.

"So… Arthur," Yang said before throwing an arm over each of their shoulders. "Anything you want to tell Ruby before she heads off to Beacon? Might_ be_ a while before you see her again."

"I… um… I don't know what you're talking about," Arthur said meekly as he poked his fingers together, his eyes darting from side to side.

"So cuuute~" Yang suddenly cooed at the sight as she wrapped her arms around Arthur's neck and gave him a big hug. Due to the height difference between them, Arthur found his face smothered within Yang's bosom, causing him to flail his arms wildly. This had the added effect of making Ruby completely turn red-faced and gain a shocked expression.

"Yaaang!" Ruby cried as she got over the initial shock. "Let go! You're suffocating him!"

"Whoops, my bad," Yang said rapping her knuckles against her head, her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth. While Arthur had been successfully extricated from Yang's voluptuous valley, and the lights were still on, it was pretty obvious nobody was home. "Heads up!" she said suddenly tossing the white-haired teen toward her sister.

"Gwah!" Ruby squawked as she caught her friend. While Arthur didn't weigh all that much, the sudden toss still had the effect of bringing her down to the floor, the girl landing on her butt with an- "Oof!" -, her arms wrapped around his midsection.

"Oooogh… What happened?" Arthur said slowly regaining consciousness. His eyes blinking a couple times, he looked up into Ruby's eyes to see that the girl was turning as red as her hoodie. When he looked down, he realized that the way he had landed put his face squarely within Ruby's budding bosom. His face turning beet red down to his neck and up to his ears, his rabbit ears shot straight up and his eyes widened before he suddenly fainted, Ruby's face glowing an atomic shade of red as Arthur's face fell forward into her chest, his ears drooping limply over her shoulders.

'_Oh god… This is _way _worse than after he saw the candid photos…' _Ruby groaned to herself, feeling a strange warmth fill her body as she held him, her arms slowly wrapping around his midsection. Maybe it had something to do with Faunus having a higher body temperature?

"Say cheese!" Yang said interrupting her sister's thoughts, snapping a candid picture with her Pocket Scroll. "Very nice. I think this should be our next Christmas card. What do you think?" she asked holding out the picture for Ruby to see, the girl flushing bright red when she was presented the image of Arthur's face nestled in her chest. "Dad's gonna _love _this."

"Gimme that camera!" she suddenly stood up, her hands reaching for the camera before a _***Thud* **_drew her gaze to the floor, her konked-out friend face-down on the floor. " . . . Oops."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hey, uh… Sorry about that," Ruby apologized to Arthur a few minutes later outside the shop. In lieu of seizing the embarrassing photo from Yang's possession, Ruby had instead opted out to treat her friend's injuries once he'd regained consciousness.

"N-No worries, it doesn't hurt that much," Arthur said lamely, a bandage on the middle of his forehead from where he'd hit the ground. "I'm… sorry for fainting in your lap like that. I uh… must've still been light-headed from… well, you know…" he trailed off nervously.

"Right. Right! _That's _what happened!" Ruby replied quickly as she flushed red at the memory.

"Anyway, um… I hope you do well at Beacon," Arthur said looking back up at her. "I… I'll try to catch up to you as soon as I can!" he said looking her right in the eye.

"Heh. Looking forward to it!" Ruby said smiling brightly, the crinkling of her eyes causing the Faunus boy's heart to skip a beat if the hitching of his breath was any indicator.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" Yang chanted from the sidelines, causing Ruby to round on her.

"_Yangnotnow!"_ Ruby hissed through her teeth before turning back to Arthur. "Anyway… Thanks for buying this for me," Ruby said holding up her bag, which contained the latest issue of Sniper King. "Next time I'll return the favor."

"Oh n-no, you don't have to do that. I was _happy _to buy that for you," Arthur replied nervously. "Anyway… I should probably be heading home… But it was really great to see you again!"

"Yeah, me too," Ruby replied with a smile. "So um… See you later."

"Y-Yeah… Later," Arthur replied.

"C'mon sis, you can do better than that!" Yang cheered as she gave a light push to her sister's back, the girl stumbling forward a couple steps.

Arthur took a quick step forward and caught her, but as a result, the two teens were now practically nose-to-nose. At the sudden closeness, their hearts began hammering against their chests, their hot breath in each others faces. While they had wide eyes and reddening cheeks, neither really made a move to back away. Instead, their hands slowly found one another between them, eyes of silver peering deeply into eyes of crimson as the din of the cityscape around them faded out. Yang pumped her fists into the air and was silently rooting them on, Blake looking on with baited breath at the real-life "Flag" playing out before her as the two's faces slowly moved towards one another, eyes half-shut.

"OH MY GOD! IS THAT PYRRHA NIKOS!"

And like that, the moment was dead.

'_Dammit!' _Yang cursed as the their eyes regained focus before they suddenly backed away, blushing up a storm and nervously straightening their clothes. _'So close!'_

"Well would you look at that. It _is _Pyrrha," Jack said turning his attention down the street, where the red-haired Mistrali teen had suddenly found herself surrounded by fans and paparazzi.

"Shouldn't she still be recovering?" Blake wondered, seeing the bandages around the girl's head. The rest of her body was obscured by the throng of people surrounding her.

"Maybe she got a little stir-crazy," Yang said with a shrug of her shoulders, lamenting the lost opportunity of having Ruby and her childhood friend finally stop dancing around one another and just say what they were obviously thinking.

"She looks like she's in a bit of a bind," Ruby said as she interlaced her fingers, her thoughts actually elsewhere.

" . . . Blake, give me your trench coat," Jack suddenly said holding his hand out.

"What're you going to do?" Blake said passing her coat to him. Now that the jig was up, she didn't _have _to wear it anymore.

"Just helping a friend out of a jam," Jack said throwing the coat over his shoulders like a cape before slipping his helmet over his head. The Black Horse making a deep breathing sound, the bike whined as it suddenly shot away from Pyrrha before pulling a sharp left behind **Tuckson's Book Trade**.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

'_Ugh… I can't _stand _the paparazzi.' _

Having nothing to do but count ceiling tiles on the ceiling or stars outside the window, Pyrrha couldn't get out of that hospital room fast enough. Once her Aura had finished its Cooldown period, the spiritual presence within her began healing her bodily wounds, the bruising and aching a dull throb on the body, a distant memory in her mind. However, with all her homework done, there wasn't anything to do until the following Monday, and after the shock of being so thoroughly trod upon the day prior, the Mistrali teen needed to step out, get some fresh air outside of Beacon.

She decided to dress casually that day; at least when compared to the intricate bronze and leather armor she usually wore during tournaments. Her attire consisted of brown leather sandals instead of heels going up to the ankle, a red sundress that went down to her knees with a golden sash around her waist, a light brown sunhat with a red ribbon around it, and a brown leather purse with golden accents. She'd let her crimson tresses down from her signature ponytail, her bright red lochs now spilling past her waist.

She still had some bandages around her head from where Jack had cracked her circlet. That on top of the black sunglasses she now wore, she intended to gain enough anonymity that she could have a day on the town and relax a little. Think things over.

_'And then_ these _assholes had to show up,_' she thought to herself as she was hounded on all sides.

The day had started out swimmingly enough. Buy a blueberry crepe as a treat, do a little window shopping for the season's latest trends, smelled the roses at the florist. She was even able to get in an order for a collapsible javelin tip to replace the piece that was now permanently wedged in the dueling arena's ceiling. Just as she was about to make her way back to the Skyport, some asshole with a camera just _had _to pick her out of a crowd, and like sharks drawn to the smell of blood in the water, paparazzo had swarmed around her, cutting off any avenue of escape.

"Ms. Nikos! A question! Are you currently seeing anyone now that you're attending Beacon?"

"Will you be continuing your modeling career? What about the endorsement deals?"

"I heard you were thoroughly beaten by an older student! Would you care to comment?"

"After that one-sided battle you lost, do you still intend to become a Huntress?"

_'I would do fucking _anything _right now to get out of this...' _Pyrrha thought to herself as she was questioned without end, the rage she felt inside a thread-snap away from reaching the surface.

_***NEIGH***_

"UWAH!"

"Look out!"

"Run for your lives!" and other such things were said by the throng to her immediate right, the fans and photographers scattering as a shadow suddenly descended upon them.

The throng clearing away, Pyrrha looked up to see a man in a yellow-and-blue cat-like helmet with a tan trench coat flapping behind him like a cape as he rode in atop an all-black four-wheeler. However, instead of the typical _***VROOM* **_one would associate with such a vehicle, his mount instead let loose an uncharacteristic _***NEIGH***_, its front wheels even spinning like a horse kicking out its legs as the driver did a wheelie.

Forewheels still raised, the helmed rider held out his hand to her, the Mistrali teen so shocked by the sudden development she found herself reciprocating the gesture. The moment her hand was within reach of his own, the man's hand clamped around her wrist before hauling her off her feet and pulling her onto the seat behind him.

Front wheels finally hitting the ground, the back wheels burned rubber as the craft suddenly pulled a 270 degree left turn, before leaving the throng of people in its dust.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After leaving the Commercial District, they had crossed the river into the Residual District. They had circled around the backstreets and main thoroughfares for a while, and when the red-head caught sight of the tail-end of her pursuers running off in a seemingly-random direction, she realized it had been to throw _off _said pursuers. The helmed rider, likely sure that the paparazzi were heading in the opposite direction, crossed another bridge into the Industrial District, housing complexes giving way to heavy machinery of factories and the like, steam pipes hanging overhead as the smell of the air gained a distinctively metallic tint.

"Hey um… Thanks for helping me out back there, but where are we going?" Pyrrha asked a few minutes into the current district.

Eventually they came across an all-brick building with many windows, pulling around the back to a closed loading dock. The sliding doors were all down, but this didn't seem to perturb the rider as he came to a stop, the four wheeler sounding like it was _breathing _rather than idling. The masked rider walking over to a wall-console, at the press of a button, a man with slicked-back hair in a black suit and red glasses appeared.

"Yeah, who is it?" the man asked irately. At this, the rider lifted his visor and gave the man a flat look. "Oh, it's you. I'll let you in," he said with a changed expression.

_***Bzzt***_

A moment later and one of the garage doors began to rise open, the rider stepping back and revving the throttle slightly, walking the fourwheeler, and herself, in. Placing it in park once it was fully inside, the rider pressed the button to close the doors behind him. Walking off to the side and towards a door, he nudged his head, asking her to follow him.

"Hmmm…" Pyrrha hummed as she crossed her arms. Normally she _wouldn't _just follow a person whose face she couldn't see, but something in her gut told her she could trust this person. And they _had _helped her out of that bind, so she could afford to give them the benefit of the doubt.

While she could have _easily _forced her way out of that crowd, doing so would've been seen as "dodging the question". However, if an "act of god" were to occur, then that was a whole other matter. The only problem was, what would the press make of her little escape? She could already imagine the tabloids casting speculation about her and a helmeted mystery man.

"Who are you, exactly?" Pyrrha asked following behind him. Just because she didn't sense any ill intend, didn't mean she wouldn't follow common sense and ask for a name.

"Pyrrha, I'm hurt," the person replied, voice muffled by their helmet. "I thought we were good buddies," he said with a mock expression of hurt as he removed his helmet.

"Jack!" Pyrrha gaped, surprised she hadn't recognized him sooner as he slipped off the trench coat he were wearing like a cape and put it on a nearby coat rack. "What were you doing in town?"

"Just running some errands with the others before I saw you in a bit of a bind. Decided to help you out," he replied. "What are _you _doing here? Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I… needed a change of scenery," Pyrrha replied. "Reflect on some life choices."

"Pyrrha, don't go all emo on me just because you lost one fight," Jack said shaking his head. "You were up against a guy that spent half of his life fighting dirty like some kind of sociopathic pit bull. Normal combat schools just don't _prepare _you for something like that."

"Maybe… But it still hurts," Pyrrha said rubbing her sore ribs.

"Yeah, cracked ribs will do that," Jack replied casually before hanging his head. _*Siiigh* _"Look… Point is, you're a great fighter. I don't say that often, much less to a Human. But you're still young, and there's an entire _world _of fighting techniques out there that you don't know yet. Don't think of this as a step backward or ground lost. Every scar is a lesson, every battle a test of what you have learned. I've learned a _lot_ of lessons over my life, you can too. Just give it a bit of time, alright?" he requested. "If you don't, people might start blaming _me _if you decide to quit."

" . . . I always _was _curious about your scars…" Pyrrha said as she crossed her arms, eyes trailing along the visible scars on Jack's face, neck, and hands. "You really _have _led a hard life, haven't you?"

"Ninety-five percent of the Human race holds me in contempt for something I didn't do or have any control over. So yeah, I've lived a pretty shitty life," Jack replied as he shrugged his shoulders. "How 'bout we change the subject. You want a drink? It'll be a while before the paparazzi give up their search for you."

"Isn't it a little _early _to be drinking?" Pyrrha asked with a raised eyebrow. Looking down at her watch, showed it wasn't too far past noon.

"Hey, it's five o'clock _somewhere_," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders as he walked out of the back room, Pyrrha following him into the Vault of Glass' interior. There were fewer people in than during the night rush, not as many lights since it was still day out, but there was still some music and a few patrons. Mostly people having drinks in the middle of the day for whatever reason.

"Jack. Didn't expect to see you in today," Junior said walking up to the two as they walked along the bar. "Who's your friend?"

"Classmate," he answered. "Pyrrha, this is Junior. He owns the club and a few of the other buildings on the block."

"Hello," she greeted.

"Pyrrha? As in… _Pyrrha Nikos_?" he said in a whisper. So far no-one had noticed her yet, and having had celebrities in his club before, he could understand to keep things on the DL.

"That's right," she replied.

"Huh, so Jack really _did _decide to go back to school," the man said polishing a glass, if only so he looked busy in front of the other customers. "I found it a little hard to believe at first, but I guess it's true."

"Why? What was Jack doing _before _he came to Beacon?" Pyrrha asked. Since he was on a completely different Team, she hadn't really had the time, or even the _reason_, to get to know more about him. However, after their fight, she had gotten curious as to how he'd gotten so strong, yet had never heard of him before. Even if he was a Faunus and the media didn't _like _to talk about them unless it was a slow day, there should've been _some _whisperings about him if he'd taken part in the competitive circuit.

"That…" Junior said before Jack gave a small shake of his head. "Isn't really my place to say. You'd have to ask _him_," he said nudging his head towards the person in question.

"I see," Pyrrha returned with a shrug. It was probably better she hear it straight from the badger's mouth anyways. _'Was that racist?' _she wondered.

"So Junior, how're things in the 'hood?" Jack asked. "Oh, and I'll have a strawberry sunrise," he added, a shudder running up the man's spine at the mention of _that _particular cocktail. His balls _still _hurt when he thought about what Blondie had ordered before everything went to shit.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," the man said preparing Jack's order. "One of the gangs tried to make a push, but the girls took care of that."

"I see," Jack replied. "Um… Are either of them around?"

"Miltia's out with a cold, and for your sake, I _hope _Melanie doesn't show up," the man replied passing Jack's strawberry sunrise forward. "What about you, Red? You having anything? First one's on the house since you're a friend of Jack."

"I… guess I'll have a red wine?" she said, a little unsure since she'd never been to a bar before.

"One red wine, coming up," Junior replied. "So… Mind if I ask you something, Red?"

"Go ahead," the young woman replied.

"What exactly do you _do_ for a living? I mean, I've seen videos of you fight, and on cereal boxes, but that's all I really know," Junior asked out of idle curiosity.

"Well…" Pyrrha replied nervously, not really one to toot her own horn, but not really seeing much of a reason to deny the man an answer either. "While I was attending Combat School in Mistral, I was scouted by a talent agency. They asked me to be the spokesperson for a line of hair care products, a while later I was asked to model for skin care. After a while I found myself balancing training to become a Huntress on top of being a model and a spokesperson for a number of companies in Mistral, and even a few from abroad."

"Weren't you on those Pumpkin Pete's something-flakes cereal boxes?" Jack asked.

"Yes. That was my last big deal before I started attending Beacon," Pyrrha replied.

"That pumpkin-marshmallow-flavored stuff that's fifty percent sugar?" Junior asked with a raised brow, having seen a couple boxes in the break room. "Doesn't that seem a little contradictory? I mean, you have to be really fit for your job, but that cereal doesn't seem to be very good for it."

"That's what I said too… _but they had me under contract," _Pyrrha replied quietly.

"So you say," the man replied passing a wine glass forward, the Mistrali teen carefully taking it in her hands before raising it to her lips. "So... Pyrrha… I have a question for you?"

"Hm?" she replied.

"Have you ever thought about part-ownership in small business?"

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Pyrrha replied.

"He's asking if you want to become part-owner of this fine establishment," Jack said between sips.

"What? Really?" Pyrrha asked in surprise.

"Yeah, it'll be great. You'll get to come in whenever you want, bring friends, get a discount on drinks, a private booth, and you'll even get a cut of the profits each month," Junior said trying to sell her on the idea. "Complete VIP treatment."

"I… am not really sure," the woman replied. She wasn't Schnee heiress rich, but she'd lived very frugally until now, so she _did _have quite a lot stored in her savings account. Most of her money went to weapon maintenance, while companies she'd sponsored products for previously sent her surplus product as "unrelated gifts" for the right to use her name or image, and to cull her favor for later deals.

"If you have the capital, I'd go for it," Jack said sipping from his drink. "Bought into this place a couple years ago, best money I ever spent," he said as he spotted a Human girl and a Faunus boy chatting it up a few seats down.

"Well…" Pyrrha said looking around the dance club. It was kinda slow, but that was only because it was the middle of the day. With the number of booths, the expansive dance floor, DJ stand, and opulent wall-spanning bar, the **Vault of Glass** looked like a very successful business. "It _would _be nice to have a place I could kick back. Let my hair down," she admitted.

"So… We got a deal?" Junior asked.

" . . . If Jack says it's a good deal, I'll just have to take his word for it," Pyrrha said as she extended her hand to the man, who shook it exuberantly.

"Glad to hear it. Let me just bring the paperwork, and we can start talking about the little details," the club owner said as he walked off to his office.

"So…" Pyrrha said awkwardly as she sat next to Jack, nursing her drink. "Do you come here often?"

"Once or twice between tours. This is my first time back here since I started Beacon, though," the Faunus replied.

"Tours? Like a mercenary?" the red-head wondered. It would certainly explain his fighting ability and lack of presence in the competitive world. Mercenaries were often frowned upon _because _they fought dirty, and because they largely fought for the highest bidder, but in a world where Hunters died every day and their numbers were stretched thin across the world, mercenaries were a very _necessary _part of the world's global economy.

" . . . Something like that," Jack replied as he rubbed his face. Even after half a month, the strange feeling of nakedness whenever he fought without a mask was still present on his mind. "I don't like to talk about it."

"I'm sorry."

"Idiot, there's nothing to apologize for," he said playfully, tapping her forehead.

"I'm sor-I, I mean…" Pyrrha paused.

"You certainly aren't like _other _celebrities across the Kingdoms," Jack replied as he finished off his drink. "Most of them tend to be a bunch of dicks. Then again, that might just be a Human thing, no offense."

"None… taken…" she said hesitantly. Having had this extended conversation with him, she could kind of understand why Weiss had such a hard time dealing with him.

"Anyway, just give me a call when you need me and I'll take you back to the Skyport," Jack said as he finished up his drink and slid a few Lien across the counter. "I'm going to go to the VIP room, eat some snacks, maybe watch a little TV-"

"BRAXTON!" a familiar voice suddenly screeched out, Jack and Pyrrha's gaze turning to the sight of a familiar girl in all-white attire and bladed heels; of course, she was only familiar to Jack. "Didn't think you'd show yourself so soon. And who the hell is _she_? You developing some kind of color-coordinated fetish or something?" she asked jabbing a finger at Pyrrha.

" . . . Jack, who is this?" Pyrrha asked. The young woman in white looked _really _dressed up for the middle of the day. Maybe she was meant to draw in business? _'Or maybe she's very vain…' _she thought to herself.

"Eh… By X-Ray &amp; Vav standards, I guess she'd be my _nemesis_, or something?" Jack said with a dismissive shrug.

"Don't you take that tone with me!" Melanie growled as she stomped towards him, her footfalls leaving cracks in the floor as wisps of white Aura wafted off of her body.

"Oi oi oi oi," Jack said narrowing his eyes as they flashed to golden-amber, wisps of crimson Aura wafting off of his body. "Don't start something you can't finish. I don't see your sister around, so I can't be held responsible for anything I might do to you."

"Hey, take it outside you two," Junior groaned from behind the counter, paperwork in hand. If _anything_, the whole thing between Jack and Melanie looked like a lover's spat because the prior had been caught with another woman. However, if the two actually started _fighting_, it might scare away customers.

It was why he always had hired muscle in the club; to haul away the normal-powered people before a fight could break out. People like Melanie and Miltiades, who had access to their Aura and fighting skills above the ability of local law enforcement, were hired on to deal with Hunters and the like that ever got rowdy.

Thankfully, if that drunken old Buzzard with the buster sword/pistol/scythe ever showed up again fishing for info, he wouldn't be caught with his pants down.

" . . . "

" . . . Fine. Let's go," Melanie ordered as she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder to the stairs. "We'll settle this on the roof, once and for all."

"Somehow I doubt it'll be that cut-and-dry," Jack replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "But alright, I'll indulge you. Lead the way."

"Are you really okay with the two of them fighting?" Pyrrha asked as she read over the paperwork. All in all it seemed pretty cut-and-dry.

"Look, Red. I don't know what it's like growing up in Mistral, but here in Vale, the streets are cruel and unforgiving," Junior said taking Jack's glass behind the counter. "I've faced a couple Grimm in my day, and I can say without a doubt, that people will _always _be more cruel than those soulless monsters. _And _they can hold a grudge."

'_People will always be more cruel…' _Pyrrha mulled over in her mind. While it was true that Hunters were most-known for dealing with the soulless legions of Grimm, from time to time they _were _asked to deal with Humans, Faunus, and even rogue Hunters. And somehow, she doubted the scars on Jack's body came _only _from Grimm. _'If I'm going to have to face people like that someday… watching Jack fight might give me some insight on what I'm lacking,' _Pyrrha thought to herself as she downed her glass before following after the two.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Like all the buildings in the Industrial District, the Vault of Glass' roof didn't have any ceiling tiles or fancy decorations. It was flat, bland, worn down by the elements, steam wafting up from the building within, with electrical and air conditioning units scattered around. There were a couple bottles and half-used cigarettes scattered about showing this is where some of the workers came on break, the skyline dominated by smokestacks and silos.

"I see you've been branching out since the last time we _really _fought," Jack said turning his attention to the weapons Melanie drew out in a flourish. "I'm curious why you didn't use them against whoever tore up the club."

"That blond chick dressed like a slutty cowgirl. I didn't think I'd need them," Melanie replied simply as she twirled a pair of karambit in her hands. They had silver blades with white handles and cyan accents, the one in her right hand held traditionally, while the one in her left was held in a saber grip.

"In that case, I should probably take you seriously," Jack said as he lowered his stance, extending the claws on his hands and feet, the grin he took revealing his sharpened canines and his eyes turned golden-amber.

"You _should_," Melanie returned as the two settled into their stances.

The wind blowing through their hair, the tension growing so thick you could cut it with a knife, at the moment Jack blinked, Melanie took action. Shooting across the roof in an instant with a **_*boom*_**, Melanie swung her right karambit at Jack's throat, but the Faunus bent backwards until his hands met the ground. Fingers digging into the ground, his feet came up, crossing around Melanie's neck before he coiled his core muscles and threw her overhead.

Nearing the roof, Melanie flipped off her left hand and righted herself, bringing up her blades not a moment too soon to stop the flurry of claw swipes Jack sent her way. Sparks flying as claw met blade, the countless blows and speed of their strikes to anyone not trained as a warrior would look like nothing more than a blur of color. Melanie's heels meeting the edge of the roof, she hooked her knives against Jack's wrists, his Aura holding strong even as she forced his arms away from his body. The next moment she performed a full-on double bicycle kick, the force of the attack sending Jack skyward while Melanie went over the edge of the roof.

Blinking the stars out of his eyes, Jack caught sight of Melanie pulling herself back onto the roof and then some, the white-clad girl flying overhead with strength bellying her frame. Her right bladed heel coming down in a spinning heel kick, Jack clapped his hands around the approaching blade an inch from his face, his and Melanie's added weight driving his back to the roof with a loud **_*CRASH*_**. Melanie's left heel aiming for his temple not even a moment later, Jack tilted his head to the side, the armored heel shaving hairs from his head before he threw his opponent away from himself.

'_I never knew there were so many strong people in the world,' _Pyrrha thought as Jack rolled backwards, getting to his feet before the two clashed in another flurry of claws and blades. It may have been a little egocentric, but upon arriving at Beacon, she truly _did _think of herself as the strongest in her year.

However, it wasn't until her defeat at Jack's hands, that she realized her own power was merely the tip of the iceberg. The ones that were _truly _strong didn't parade their power and skills about for everyone to see at spectator events; they were actually putting them to good use. Hell, the Four Heavenly Kings were some of the strongest people in all of Remnant, and they weren't even Huntsmen in the _first _place.

"Hraah!" Melanie cried as she swung her right karambit at Jack's face, Pyrrha gasping in shock before the weapon was suddenly stopped with a loud _***KLANG***_, the red-head gaping when Jack actually _caught _the curved knife in his teeth. The metal groaning, Jack bit clean through the cutting edge of the blade a few seconds later.

'_Unreal…' _Pyrrha gawped as Jack spit the broken pieces of metal out of his mouth, Melanie quickly overcoming her shock and switching her remaining weapon between hands

"Bleh. I don't know what metal polish you've been using, but that was _nasty_," Jack said back as he spit the taste out of his mouth.

"Well how 'bout you taste my _boot_!" Melanie growled as she pulled a Red Dust crystal before crushing it with her right heel, a brilliant red glow running from the point of impact to the tip of her blade. Drawing up that leg, she began to spin at speeds that would turn any figure skater green with envy, the white-and-black tornado gaining a brilliant crimson glow before she suddenly shot towards her opponent, the red glow stoked into a brilliant comet-shaped flame in a flying jump kick.

"You're pretty good!" Jack said with a grin before Melanie's bladed heel met his eye.

"An afterimage!?" Pyrrha gawped as Melanie's foot passed right through, the genuine article having shifted his boy forward at such speeds it looked like there were _two _of him. His right arm raised, five gashes were made in the girl's back the moment she passed overhead, Melanie gritting her teeth as she slammed both heels into the ground, digging trenches into the roof as she forced herself to a stop. To Pyrrha's surprise however, Melanie didn't stop from the pain, but instead coiled her legs before shooting at her opponent backwards. The red-head's jaw dropped as, while in mid-air, Melanie twisted her body into another cyclonic blur of color, her bladed heels spinning through the air like helicopter blades. The sudden surge of air re-igniting her blades, Jack raised both arms to guard, but the momentum of Melanie's attack broke through, and a gout of flame burst from where her blade met Jack's ribs.

"GAH!" the Faunus swore as he was sent flying, tumbling halfway across the roof before the claws on his left hand dug into the roof, his free hand going to his side. Coming to a stop, the area around the cut was largely bruised, his clothing around his left ribs charred away, the dried blood beginning to flake away as crimson light seeped into the wound and his Aura healed it. "Heh... Looks like _someone's _been doing their squats," Jack remarked as Melanie shook off the dizziness across the roof from him, white Aura filling her wounds as they sealed shut.

"And it looks like _you _finally got off the rag," Melanie snapped back.

"Heh. Cute," Jack replied as he spit out a glob of blood. "Almost as cute as your sister's face after I-"

"You're DEAD!" Melanie growled as white Aura flooded out of her body, the Pressure it exuded causing Pyrrha's hair to whip back.

"Bitch, PLEASE!" Jack snapped back as crimson Aura flooded out of his body, the two Pressures almost knocking Pyrrha off the roof.

_'So much power...' _Pyrrha gawped as the air around the two began to stain red and white, sparks clashing when the two fronts collided.

_***Woo*Woo*Woo*Woo***_

"Shit, it's the cops!" Melanie swore as the buildings down the street were suddenly stained with red and blue light.

"Tch. Looks like we got a little too rowdy," Jack clicked back. "Looks like we'll have to settle this later. Psycho-bitch."

"Yeah, I'll see you later. Filthy sex-hound," Melanie snapped back as she began to go downstairs, Jack making his way over to the edge of the roof.

"But Jack, isn't your ride downstairs?" Pyrrha asked right as he was about to jump over the edge. "And I still need to finish that paperwork."

" . . . You just _couldn't _let me make a dramatic exit, could you?" he asked over his shoulder with a flat expression.

"I'm sorry."

"Son of a _taint_, you apologize too much!"

"I'm sorry."

"GODDESS DAMMIT!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"And that's what happened," Pyrrha said into her Scroll a while later on the airship back to Beacon.

"You know, if you wanted to go out into town, you could've told us," Jaune replied. "We're a team. We wouldn't have had any problem going _with _you."

"I'm sorry. I just... wanted some time alone," Pyrrha returned.

"It's alright. Though maybe the next time you go out into the town, you have an exit strategy in mind," Ren commented.

"I'll be sure to come up with one."

"Ooh! Ooh! You can _break their legs_!" Nora said manically.

"No, Nora. Bad Nora." **_*Spritz*Spritz*_**

"HISSSSSSS!"

"Um... Is everything alright over there?" she asked as the sound of fighting in the background came through.

"We're... fine," Jaune replied. "Nora's just getting a little..."

"ROWR!"

"Ah! My left nipple!"

" . . . Catty."

"Heheh, I see," Pyrrha giggled.

"So... Whatever happened to Jack?" Jaune asked.

"After he dropped me off at the Skyport, he said he was going to go back into town for a bite. I assume he'll be back at Beacon by tonight."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Meanwhile back in Vale, around the corner from a certain Dust store which was currently in the process of being renovated, Jack sat atop the stool of a food stand labeled **A Simple Wok**. There were four stools in front of a counter and a kitchen in the back. The architecture was largely inspired by buildings on the eastern half of Orient, the continent to the far east of Vale, the roof tiles a dark shade of brown, the interior an off-yellow, red support beams inside. There were curtains hanging down from the edge of the roof bearing the noodle house's logo, allowing people to come and go freely, yet keep out the evening chill. All in all, the warm colors and the smell of ingredients in the back roused the appetite.

"Hey, Old Man Wok. How's it hanging?" Jack asked.

At that, the man waved his hand in a "so-so" manner.

"That's good to hear. Sorry about what happened to your shop. If I'd stuck around a little longer, maybe I could've stopped it."

To that, the man shook his head.

"Yeah... You're probably right. If I'd gotten involved, the damage probably would've been a _lot_ worse."

At that, the old man tilted his head, motioning his head towards the east.

"How am I doing at Beacon? I never told you about that."

The man shifted his stance, rolling his wrist with a ladle in hand.

"Oh, so one of your friends works the kitchens at Beacon. Good to know."

The man made a "go on" motion with his hand.

"Things are good. They were a little rough at first, got stuck with a bunch of _assholes_ at the beginning, but I met a really nice girl who was willing to stick her neck out for me, get me added to her team. After we got the paperwork sorted out, I just had to give out some ass-kickings, and now I'm high and dry while those rimjobs were left in the dust. Ruby and her sister are really cool, but I just can't _stand _the other two."

Wok raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the first one's a complete bitch. Everything that comes out of her mouth is either racist, or leading _into _something racist. The _other _girl... I just don't like her attitude. Really rubs me the wrong way."

Nodding his head, the old man then motioned towards the menu on the right wall.

"Oh, I'm waiting for someone. I'll order in a bit," Jack replied.

"I'm amazed you can understand him so well," a voice from beyond the curtain cut in.

"Well, you know. Sometimes you just gotta read the little things," Jack replied over his shoulder. "Pull up a seat. This ramen won't eat itself."

" . . . I suppose I will," the voice's owner said as he parted the curtain, stepping in before taking a seat on the stool. His attire consisted of black sneakers and worn-out black jeans, followed by a black hoodie with red thorn designs running up the sleeves, down the sides, and around the hood. The hood coming down revealed a man with white complexion, bright red hair that gradated to brown towards the back, and tired brown-colored eyes. What was most-hidden by the cowl of his hood were the short ox horns sticking out of his forehead that blended into his hairline.

"Hey, Adam. How's it going?"

"I'm fine," the man answered. "Why did you call me out here?"

"What, can't a guy call his best friend out for a bowl of noodles? Shoot the breeze?"

" . . . I guess there isn't anything against it," Adam said as he looked over his shoulders. The streets were becoming bare, and aside from the old man behind the counter, there wasn't anyone else within earshot. "You treating?"

"Eh, why not? I came into big money recently," Jack replied with a shrug. "I'll have a Pork Ramen. Plus-sized."

"I'll have a Veggie Bowl. Regular-sized," Adam returned, the old man nodding to the two of them before zipping off to the back. "We caught your fight on the net. Good job putting that trash where it belonged. I could tell _you _enjoyed yourself."

"I guess it kinda showed on my face," Jack returned with a shrug. "Glad you and the others enjoyed the free show."

"And I know those three deserved every broken bone, every stitch, and every shred of dignity that got ripped away."

"They'd need to _have _dignity in the first place."

"I suppose they would," Adam replied. A blur of motion shooting towards his peripheral, the older Faunus' hand went to his side for a sword that wasn't even there. The clattering of a rolling bowl coming to a stop in front of him, he grew less tense, the smell of cooked noodles and vegetables before him causing the Bull Faunus' mouth to water a little. While carnivorous varieties of Faunus had half the number of taste buds as a Human, herbivores had quadruple that of the average Human. Jack, being of the omnivorous variety, possessed roughly two to three times that number. "So..." Adam groused as he grabbed a pair of chopsticks and split them in half. "Is Beacon everything you ever hoped for?"

"It wasn't _my _idea... But yeah, things are good," Jack replied, taking some noodles and pork into his mouth, slurping them in loudly before turning back to his friend. "Once I got rid of those drecks, things got _much _better."

"That's good to hear," Adam said as he took part in his own meal. Most places wouldn't serve Faunus, and those that _did _half the time tried to poison them, banking on the fact that the police wouldn't look too-deeply into foul play. The Lieutenant kept some poison-nullifiers in his pocket, but the old man behind the counter wasn't giving off even an _iota _of ill intent. If Jack could afford to let his guard down around the man, at least when it came to the food, he could afford to meet his friend halfway. "So... How's my old partner doing?"

"Still has her nose buried in her erotica when she thinks no-one's looking," Jack replied as he rolled his hand.

"If that old wives tale about people sneezing when they're being talked about is true, she probably sneezed all _over _that little red book of hers."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A few minutes of idle chat later, Jack paid for their meals, before bidding the old man a good evening and heading out. The streets were largely empty by now, the recent string of Dust thefts keeping most inside. The only reason there wasn't a curfew was because no-one had actually gotten _hurt _in the recent crime wave, and things hadn't gotten _that _bad yet.

"Jack."

"Yeah?"

"The next time we meet, it'll be as enemies."

"And I've made peace with that."

"If your team gets in the way of our plans, I won't show them any mercy. You know that, right?"

" . . . I swore on my mother and sister's grave that I wouldn't let anyone under my care die," Jack said plainly after a few seconds. "If you want to get to them, you'll have to go through _me _first. And I'll make you _work _for it."

"Is that a threat?"

"No. It's a promise."

" . . . Good answer," Adam replied with a smile, the two bumping fists. "So long."

"Yeah. See ya," Jack said with his hands in his pockets, the two men parting ways.

_"Don't call me out here ever again."_

_"Wasn't planning on it."_

_" . . . Goodbye, old friend," _the two spoke in unison, idly rubbing their faces.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

An airship ride up the river to Beacon later, followed by a leisurely walk under the star to the dorms, and Jack was back before the door to Team RWBY+1. Waving his Scroll by the door's lock, the deadbolt disengaged with a **_*click*_**. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were already in their sleepwear; Ruby was sending out messages on her Scroll, Weiss was studying history on her bunk, Blake sat by the window with a familiar red book in her hands, and Yang was cleaning her weapon at her desk.

"Oh hey there. Didn't hear you come in," Yang said as she looked up from her work. "What kept you? I'm surprised you didn't come back to Beacon with Pyrrha."

"Eh, after I got her to the Skyport, I had _one _last errand to run," Jack replied before locking up. "Shit! I forgot my books at Tucksons!"

"Don't worry, Jack! As your faithful leader, I took it upon myself to bring your belongings back to HQ," Ruby said with a smile presenting a bag loaded up with books. Namely a few volumes of the back-room books and a replacement Grimm bestiary written and dictated by their own bombastic professor.

"You're a goddess-send," Jack said taking his bag.

"Hey Jack, when you get finished with volume one, I'll trade ya. Maybe we can compare notes," Yang said taking a book out of her desk drawer. The book was hardback with a bright yellow cover, the numbers **007-1** slapped across the front in white letters, the word **Agent **above it in small letters. On the spine was the volume number **1**.

"Sure, why not? I'll probably get a chapter or two read before bed anyway," Jack said taking the first book out of his bag.

"God, I can't believe you _read _that garbage," Weiss said with an upturned nose at Jack's paperback. The cover was a light shade of blue with white snow flurries on the front, the words **Blue Tundra** on the front in font that alternated between white on blue surfaces, and blue on white. On the spine was the volume number **1**.

"Oh don't get all high-and-might with _me_, Miss Sixty Shades of Silver," Jack counted as he snapped his book shut.

"H-Ho-How did you know about that?!" Weiss recoiled with a shriek, going redder and redder in the face until her complexion matched that of a steamed lobster.

"Perfect. Visual. Acuity. In. The dark," Jack said slowly as he pointed at his eyes with two fingers. "I catch you reading that smut with your night vision spectacles every night before you go to sleep."

"Oh my god, you actually _read _that rag?" Yang busted out laughing.

"That _rag _as you so put it, is one of the deepest, most in-depth narratives of love overcoming the bounds between social classes and societal convention to ever be published!"

"It's a story about a billionaire heiress who turns an unassuming file clerk into her own personal sex-slave," Jack interrupted. "The only reason I know _that _much is because I had a co-worker who would never _shut up_ about it."

"Don't you take that tone with me! At least _my _story isn't nothing but panty shot illustrations and jokes about people's _genitals_!"

Weiss only knew that much by reputation.

"At least _my _story doesn't have a super-freak heiress and her _sex dungeon_!"

"At least _MY _story doesn't fixate on high school students!"

_"Wow... They are_ really _getting in each others faces,_" Yang whispered as the two continued to argue back and forth.

_"I know. It's like watching an old_ married _couple,_" Blake returned.

"Are you sick in the head?!" Weiss snapped, completely red-faced.

"Yeah! Like I'd _ever _be sexually attracted to this talking fish bone!" Jack retorted with a lazy wave of his hand.

"_FISH BONE_! Why I _never_!"

_'This is_ way _more entertaining than my book,_' Blake and Yang shared similar thoughts as they watched the two butt heads, Ruby keeping her distance as she texted with her friends back at Signal.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**AN:  
On note of Team RWBY+1's reading material... The works of literature identified as "AVALANCHE", "Sniper King", "Agent 007-1", "Blue Tundra", and "Sixty Shades of Silver" are all references to different real-world books/movies/anime, either singular or mixed. Can you guess them all?**

**Arthur, last name Asimov (after the Science Fiction writer who created the Three Laws of Robotics), is an OC created by me for use in this story. Ruby **_**did **_**say she was writing a letter back to "the gang" at Signal in "The Shining Beacon, Pt.2" (RWBY ******Volume 1 Chapter 3**), but aside from that they're never mentioned again. For that reason, I've created a set of friends she would've had while going there, and likely would've gone on to make a Team with if she hadn't been bumped forward 2 years to go to Beacon.**


	15. Sisterly Struggles

The next day Team RWBY+1 stayed in, and things were decidedly less hectic.

Ruby spent most of the day in a desperate struggle, both with herself and a dictionary, to find a cool-sounding abbreviation that used each team member's initials. While she did this, burning through countless pieces of paper in the process, the largest obstacle aside from the maze of vocabularic dead-ends was that as part of her training in Instantaneous Movement, she had attempted to do as much of it as possible without the use of her hands. Sharpening pencils was easy-enough, but actually _writing _was next to impossible.

Weiss spent most of the day at _her _desk, reading ahead in the material that might be covered in class, studying up on things completely _unrelated _to those topics, and cleaning her Myrtenaster. It was very important to thoroughly clean the revolving cylinder once Dust charges had been expended, as cross-contamination from two different types of Dust often had disastrous results. She also attempted to tune out the sight of Ruby making a complete fool of herself as she attempted to write stuff with her feet like some kind of primate.

Blake spent _her _time off in her bunk, reading her books. Since she could no longer deny the presence of her guilty pleasures, she was suddenly more-open about reading her Ninjas of Love hardback where everyone could see it. It was by no small miracle that Ruby had _not _become interested in what the rest of her Team was reading, her mind less-likely to "wander". Yang, knowing what certain iterations of NoL contained, had made it very clear that if Ruby was "corrupted" and lost interest in Arthur because of said books, there'd be hell to pay.

Yang, satisfied that Blake would not corrupt Ruby after certain not-so-subtle death threats on the way back to Beacon from town the other day, went to the training hall. Back at the baseball diamond, though Jack had managed to kick off of thin air to over a hundred feet high, "double jumping" _one _time being something she thought was impossible or an exaggeration, in the end he said he was "out of shape". This had her wondering just what he was capable of at full-tilt, and never one to back away from a challenge, spent much of her time "punching all the things" in the training hall. It was only when faculty chased her out for totaling almost all of the Freshman-allotted training drones for the month, that she returned to her room after working up a good sweat.

Jack spent most of his time at his desk, working extensively on a pair of spiral notebooks, one red and one yellow. The letters he slapped onto them in black marker made it really obvious who they were meant for. The illustrations were incredibly detailed, similar to the ones Professor Port would draw up in his class, only with people instead of Grimm. However, whenever anyone attempted to see _what_ he was working on, the Faunus would give them the stink-eye and make them back off.

The day came and went in a flash, and it was Monday before anyone knew it.

Professor Port's first block was… something _some _parties would rather forget, and something others would remember for weeks, maybe months to come. Certain parties would rather forget about it entirely.

In the _next _class, that's where things got a little more interesting.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"Now then, can anyone tell me who is most-widely regarded as the instigator of the Great War?" Dr. Oobleck asked, a few students looking unsure of themselves or trying to find it in their books, before a hand went up. "Ah, Mr. Braxton, you have the answer?"

"A lot of the stories I've heard growing up try to play it off as someone of more-_noble _upbringing starting the upheaval against the royal families. However, when you pick away at all the bullshit that's been regurgitated over the years," Jack started off as he rolled his hand at the wrist. "The person _I _believe was most-responsible for starting the Great War was the privateer, Gol D. Roger," he announced, most of the students going to the back of the book trying to find that reference. "Of course, to the rest of the world, he was simply known as _Gold _Roger, and his name being thematic with his most-used cargo is probably where people naming their kids after colors came from."

"Very good, Mr. Braxton," Dr. Oobleck replied taking a sip from his mug. "And yes, you are in fact correct that many people from noble lineages have tried to lay claim to starting the conflict that ended the monarchies' corrupt rule over Remnant. However, because Gol D. Roger did what he did for purely _selfless _reasons, as opposed to doing so in order to make his mark on history, the truth has been able to persevere, even though Gol D. Roger himself was not in any position to _write _the history books that are studied today." **_*Siiiip* _**"Now then, can anyone tell me _why _Gol D. Roger instigated the Great War," he asked, searching the sea of students for raised hands, his face darting from side to side. "Anyone? Anyone? Ms. Rose, you have the answer?"

"Um, yes…" Ruby said gathering her thoughts. "The reason that Gol D. Roger started the Great War, was because of his Semblance, 'Voice of All Things'," she answered, people muttering and wondering what the guy's Semblance had to do with anything. "While nowadays, Aura-users with Semblance are a dime in a dozen in our line of work, back then, only the nobility were allowed to learn how to manipulate Aura, and anyone not born of noble blood who _tried _were labeled as heretics and executed or banished into the Frontier. Because Roger claimed to hear the _voice _of all the artwork and literature that was being destroyed, and the effect that it would have on future generations, he was originally written off as being mentally insane, as his background as a privateer wasn't high enough in the social hierarchy to enable him to learn about Aura and Semblance through conventional channels. Another reason, was that he simply wanted the freedom to do as he pleased, and the nobility was getting in the way of that during his heyday."

Ruby's in-depth explanation of the subject had her fellow students skimming through their books like mad, trying to find these details. Unfortunately, such details had been _omitted _from the general textbooks. Something about the Council not wanting a _pirate_ to become a role-model, let alone one that would incite thoughts of rebellion.

"Excellent, Miss Rose! Most excellent! I see you've taken to extra readings in your spare time. Very good, very good indeed!" the man said jovially, happy beyond all measure that a student was _learning _about the world's history, instead of having it go in one ear and out the other.

"Right… extra readings…" Ruby replied with a nervous sweatdrop. "Yeah…"

It wasn't that she learned all this from extra reading. It was more like Jack had told her all of this while the two trained together, and in her spare time she got confirmation from her dad back at Signal that the stories she'd been told were historically accurate.

"Now, let us discuss the formation of the world's first naval law enforcement service!" the enthusiastic man said zipping along the front of the class.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"I must say, you've shown _great _improvement in your academic performance as of late," Weiss complimented Ruby as they got in line for food after Professor Port's class. "I'm impressed."

"Aw, thanks Weiss," Ruby said with a wide smile.

"I take it you've been giving sis private lessons?" Yang asked Jack behind the two.

"I just tell her stories that fall under the realm of historical non-fiction," he returned with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Think you could give me some _priiivate_ lessons too?" the blond asked as she waggled her eyebrow.

"Down. Bad girl," Blake chided half-heartedly.

"I'll pencil you in for next Tuesday," Jack said off-handedly as he loaded his tray.

"Heya guys!" Nora greeted waving Team RWBY+1 over to a table by the doors.

"Hey, Nora," Yang returned. "Great job in Professor Port's class."

"I broke its _legs_!" the red-head cheered.

"Yes. Yes you did," Ren returned as he sipped his tea.

"Ooooogh…" Jaune groaned, face-down on the table.

"What's wrong with _him_?" Jack asked.

"Jaune… has a case of the Mondays," Pyrrha answered.

"That and he got butt-fucked by a big Ursa, hahahaha," Cardin snickered as he walked by.

"Oh yeah… I _thought _I'd heard more girly screaming than usual," Jack hummed.

"You weren't watching?" Ren asked.

"Eh, Port's story was _way _more interesting than whatever _Jaune _was doing," Jack shrugged off.

"Why did he have to single _me _out…" Jaune groaned.

Monday had been going well enough for the leader of Team Juniper. He woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, all his weekend homework was ready to be turned in to Dr. Oobleck, and his favorite cinnamon buns were fresh from the oven by the time he'd had breakfast. He was even able to avoid fading out as the fast-paced professor droned on about pirates versus the navy.

And then things took a turn for the worst in Professor Port's class. There, he'd been singled-out for having never been given the "opportunity" to show his grit before his fellow Hunters-in-Training. After being forced into the changing room to get his armor and weapons, he was brought face to face with a four-hundred-pound Ursa. Any competent student could handle _that _much on flat, unobstructed ground in a controlled environment with little difficulty.

Unfortunately… Jaune was not one of them, and he got "butt-fucked" as Cardin so eloquently put it.

If it weren't for Nora stepping in to save his scrawny white ass with the Magnhild she'd _somehow_ hidden in her schoolbag, he very well _may have _gotten butt-fucked.

That or have his head slapped off by the Grimm's massive meat-hunks.

"Don't worry Jaune," Pyrrha said reassuringly rubbing his back. "Next time you face an Ursa, I'm _sure _you'll come out on top," she said giving him a thumbs up.

" . . . Hahahahahahaha!" Team CRDN laughed as they walked off. "On top... That's a good one."

"Pyrrha… Maybe you should think before you speak," Jack deadpanned, Pyrrha growing red-faced as she realized how her words sounded. "And Jaune," he said turning to the blond. "Sex partners really like it when you call them the next morning. _And _make them breakfast."

"Oh god…" Jaune groaned as he banged his head on the table.

"Heeey… Don't worry Jaune… You didn't do _that _bad," Ruby said trying to reassure him.

"He didn't do very _well _either," Weiss huffed. Frankly, Jaune's rather poor showing was _very _insulting to someone like her who spent years at a Combat School to be the very best she could be by seventeen. How someone like _Jaune_ was able to get into Beacon if he couldn't even handle an Ursa, she'd never know.

_'Why is this happening to meeeeeee…' _Jaune groaned to himself as Weiss turned her nose up at him like he were rubbish on the sidewalk. Or gum on the bottom of a shoe. Or a number of things you'd look upon with scorn and derision.

"Hey, look at it this way!" Ruby said trying to get his attention. "At _least _things can't get aaany worse!"

**_*BAM*_**

"aaaAAAAAAAaaaaahhh!" a random student cried as the sudden kicking-in of the nearby door sent him flying through the air and haplessly tumbling into Jaune from behind, who busted his head on the table in front of him with a loud **_*KRAK*_** before falling out of his seat.

"Jack Braxton!" a voice cried out.

"Oh goddess…" Jack groaned as he looked over his shoulder, recognizing the owner of that voice by the scent of her shampoo alone. And the voice.

"Bitch, _I'm _your god now!" Melanie scowled his way, her rather flashy choice in attire drawing male and female eyes alike. "It may've taken me two days, but I _found _you! All by my_self_!"

"No _*wheeze*_ you _*gasp* _didn't…" Miltia wheezed as she ran around the corner of the door, hands on her knees as she caught her breath after chasing her sister from the Skyport. "God, I'm out of shape."

"Miltia, great to see you again," Jack said with a smile to the red-clad girl before turning to her sister. "Melanie… Why the fuck are you here?" he turned to the other sister with a flat expression.

"Jack. Who _are _these people?" Weiss asked as she eyed the two flashily-dressed girls.

"By X-Ray &amp; Vav standards, she would be Jack's nemesis," Pyrrha asked while motioning to the white-clad girl.

"Don't you take that tone with me too!" Melanie said jabbing a finger at the red-head.

"I _*gasp* _am _so_ _*wheeze* _sorry," Miltia gasped as she apologized to everyone present.

"Surrounding yourself with a harem of schoolgirls…" Melanie said derisively as she observed the Faunus' present company. "Who knew you could sink so low."

"I am _not _forming a/part of his harem!" Jack and Weiss raged simultaneously.

"Could've fooled me," she said eyeing the collection of schoolgirls, before her eyes landed on the blond. "You again!?"

"Hey Jack, you know this bimbo?" Yang asked jabbing a thumb at the white-clad girl whom she _never _expected to see again. At least not at Beacon.

"I should ask him the same thing," Melanie said turning her nose up at the blond.

"You wanna go, sister?" Yang asked as she cocked her gauntlets.

"I'll deal with _you _later!" Melanie growled before turning to where Jack was sitting.

***Cue blinking silhouette sight gag***

"So, Miltia," Jack said smoothly as he propped himself up against the door frame by her, his hand beside her head as he looked deeply into her eyes. "What's my favorite girl doing all the way out here?" he asked using his free hand to tilt her chin upward and causing the girl to blush.

_'Wow, that's hot!' _Yang thought with a flush on her cheeks.

_'Wow, he's good!' _Jaune thought at the smooth operator.

_'Wow, that's cheesy,' _Blake deadpanned from her seat.

_'Ugh, so tasteless,' _Weiss grumbled to herself as she gripped her shirt.

_'Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes~' _Nora hummed to herself.

"I… I… I wanted to see how you were doing… after that video went viral," the red-clad girl returned bashfully as she poked her fingers together. "I would've come sooner, but there was work, then I got that cold, and I couldn't get off until today."

"Oh, well, since you're here, maybe I can give you a tour of the facilities. There are the classrooms, the dueling ring, the forges, the rec center," he listed off as he leaned a little closer to her. "Or we could move straight to _my _room," he said salaciously, causing the red-clad girl to quiver, while the white-clad girl bristled.

"You… sick… fucker!" Melanie growled.

"I'll have you know I'm in _perfect _health," Jack countered. "So… about that tour?" he offered the girl under his arm. "Completely unrelated question, what's your schedule look like for the next hour?"

"I… wouldn't be _opposed _to it," Miltia said with a soft smile as she touched his arm.

_"You…"_ Melanie growled.

"Why not join me for lunch?" Jack asked. _"You'll need the energy for later," _he whispered in the girl's ear.

_"Damn…"_ Melanie was now gnashing her teeth.

"Do you think I could get some… _private_ lessons?" Miltia asked bashfully.

"PERVERT!" Melanie raged at the pillow-talk going on right in front of her.

"Gotta go!" Jack said as he slipped off his weights before tossing them to Yang, who caught the 100 kilos with little difficulty. "Hold those for me! I'll be back for them later!" he said scooping Militia up in his arms before carrying her away from Melanie, the white-clad girl giving chase.

Teams RWBY and JNPR looking through the open doorway, they saw Melanie slowly closing the distance between herself and Jack. Kicking out her leg in a reverse roundhouse kick, the blade on the back of her heel sheared through the air, a crescent of pressurized wind shooting towards the fleeing Faunus. Looking over his shoulder, Jack quickly came to a stop, tossing Miltia into the air before drawing his arm back, and making a knife-slashing motion with claws extended, sent a like-type blade of pressurized wind into Melanie's attack, the two neutralizing one another in mid-air.

Miltia landing in Jack's arms in a princess carry, Jack took off running once more, though Melanie had almost completely closed the distance between them. With her arms outstretched, Melanie looked like she wanted to strangle Jack to death. However, before she could do so, Jack kicked off the ground to put more distance between himself and the white-clad girl, before repeating the same motion in mid-air several times until he and Miltia were level with the second-story window.

The two diving in, Melanie scrambled for the nearest stairwell, leaving a number of students awestruck by what they'd just seen.

"Hey Ren, can't you also-"

"Nora, just eat your lunch."

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"Okay… We should be safe for now," Jack said after he and Miltia ducked into a nearby storage closet. "So Miltia, how have things-mmmph!" he said before the girl pushed him against the wall and pressed her lips to his, her arms wrapping around his neck and holding him in place for a better angle. The Faunus wrapped his arms around the small of her back in kind, returning the gesture.

"I've been fine," Miltia replied a minute later after coming up for air. "I… I missed you," she said as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

"I missed you too," Jack replied as he reciprocated the gesture. "Wish we could've met up again under…" he said as his ears picked up Melanie storming past their hiding spot, raving about bed sheets and such. "_Friendlier _circumstances," he concluded, wondering if the white-clad girl would ever let that go.

Reminded him a lot of Weiss actually, goddess above help him if the two decided to team up. Or even start _talking _to one another.

"Yeah, well, that's the thing about twins," Miltia chuckled nervously. "We're pretty much joined at the hip. Speaking of which…" she said as a lustful look suddenly crossed her features. Mashing her lips against Jack's own, she pushed him against another wall as she laid kisses against his face and neck. Her hands unbuttoning his jacket before tossing it aside, they then snaked under his shirt and ventured to his toned stomach, tracing the scars that littered his body with an innate familiarity. As their tongues tangled, the red-clad girl began to lift Jack's shirt over his head, revealing more and more of his scarred torso. As this was happening, Jack's right hand went to her thigh and pulled her up against him, his remaining hand massaging her breast through her clothing.

"Miltia, wait," Jack said as he separated from their lip-lock, causing the girl across from him to pout. "We can't do this here."

"Why not? You had no problem in the club's backroom a couple months back," Miltia said with a coy grin, remembering their little romp in the Vault of Glass' back room a few months back. It was kinda hard to hear 'this-and-that' going on when DJ Deadb3ar was dropping phat beats from his turntables.

"It's not that I'm afraid of getting _caught_, the risk is half the fun," Jack admitted in turn. "However, the moment we start… That door is going to fly wide open," he said pointing at the door across from him.

"My sis ran the completely opposite direction. Stop worrying, okay?" she asked as she pecked him on the lips. Trailing kisses down his torso, she then took the tab of his zipper between her teeth, pulling down with a- **_*Ziip*_**

**_*BAM*_**

"Ah ha! I _found_ you!" Melanie shouted as she kicked the door in.

"Fuck me!" Miltia cursed as she turned around, Jack's fly halfway undone.

"Not like we can do that _now_," Jack returned, Melanie staring at the scene with wide eyes. "Melanie, before you say _anything_…" he said as he slowly dressed himself. " . . . This is _exactly _what it looks like."

"You fucking_ pervert_!" the white-clad girl shouted, completely red in the face. "I'll _kill _you!"

_"We should probably go now,"_ Miltia whispered as she flattened the creases in her dress.

_"Remember, her line of sight is based on movement," _the Faunus chuckled as he pulled his arms through his jacket.

"You're _dead_!" Melanie growled as she lunged at his throat.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**_*BAM*_**

"Jack! Where the _hell _are you?!" Melanie demanded a half-hour later, kicking in a door that she _thought _she saw the two go into. "Hey!" she shouted at Professor Peach, a meek child-like man with bright orange hair that always smelled like peaches, clad in a green plaid-patterned suit. "Did you see a Badger Faunus and a girl in red come through here?"

" . . . Miss," Professor James Peach stated as he adjusted his glasses. "Can I see your visitor's pass?"

" . . . "

**_*BAM*_**

"Phew," a voice said from above as Melanie got the fuck out of Dodge. "Thought she'd _never _leave."

The eyes of the professor and the class were then drawn upward. Hanging from the ceiling by the claws of his hands and feet was Jack. Clinging to his chest with her arms and legs wrapped around him was Miltia. Retracting the claws from his feet and one of his hands, Jack held Miltia to his body with his free arm before retracting his final set of claws, allowing them to drop to the floor in a crouch, the girl in red transitioned into a princess carry on the way down.

"Sorry about that, Professor. Was I late?" Jack asked as he set his friend onto her feet.

"No. A minute later and you _would've _been," the professor replied as the bell rang.

"Um… Thank you for not turning me in, sir," Miltia said with a slight bow. It felt _really _weird saying "sir" to someone who looked like he could be her little brother.

"Yes, well… You _did _have a visitor's pass," the child-like man replied. "Would you like to sit in, observe the class?"

"I…" Miltia said nervously as she felt the eyes of the class on her. Primarily from the males who were eyeing her up and down. "If it isn't too much trouble," she said wrapping her arms around one of Jack's own. His arm being pulled into Miltia's chest turned the males in the room green with envy, but a red-eyed glare from the Faunus turned their attention back to the chalkboard.

As class started, the girl followed Jack up the side steps before walking into the aisle, taking the seat next to his and scooching next to him. With Jack on her left, she looked to her immediate right and saw a familiar blond moving her chair next to her. "Hello again," the girl said nervously to the blond that had punched her halfway across the club and through a glass pillar. There wasn't any doubt Jack would step in if she were in any danger, but it didn't make the fear any less tangible.

"Hey, yourself," Yang replied, and thankfully for Miltia it was in a laid-back manner. "So, you a friend of Jack's?"

_"Y-Yes,"_ the red-clad girl replied as Professor Peach began his lecture on edible plants.

_"So…"_ Yang started, bringing her tone down to a whisper. _"How'd the two of you meet?"_

_"I'm right here you know," _Jack stated, though he was ignored.

_"We um… met at the club."_

_"Oh? Which one?"_

_"The one you kinda… wrecked…"_

_"Wait, that was _you_?" _Jack asked his blond teammate. _"No wonder the place was a sty last time I visited."_

_"Hey, you mind? We're having girl-talk here," _Yang said before turning her attention back to the red-clad girl. Between their pale complexion and love of red-and-black clothing, she and Ruby could easily be mistaken for sisters. _"So… You seem very _close _to Jack," _she said noting just how closely she was sitting to her teammate. _"He pop your cherry or what?" _she asked playfully, which in turn caused the girl to look away, blushing bright red and twiddling her thumbs. _"Wait, he _did_!" _the blond exclaimed in shock. _"Details. Now. How's he in bed? How much stamina does he have? Does he have magic hands or a really big-"_

"Ms. Xiao Long!" Professor Peach shouted. "Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?"

_'Dammit!' _Yang swore to herself, moments away from getting the answer to a question that had vexed her since she saw Jack's **It's Also a Gun** sleep-shirt. "No sir…" the blond begrudgingly replied.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

Because Melanie was on-campus without a visitor's pass, as was standard procedure, she was "approached calmly", and then "escorted" off of school grounds. In short a couple senior students were sent to hunt her down for extra credit, and then she was tossed on the first airship back to Vale. As it turned out, the only reason she'd been _allowed _on the airship to Beacon was because after the guy at the ticketbooth gave Miltia the green light, Melanie only had to flash a little leg to make the man putty in her hands.

Clearly, more-stringent employee training was in order.

That aside, with Melanie out of the picture for the time being, Miltia was able to sit in on the final class of the day, where Jack had been called down to face off against Team CRDL's Sky Lark, who behind Dove Bronzewing was regarded as the team's "top coward". Compared to the other teams, DIRJ notwithstanding due to them all still being in the infirmary, the members of Team CRDL were _all _cowards. At the very least, Cardin was willing to get his hands dirty, and Russel had actually begun _improving _in class if only so he wouldn't get repeatedly punched in the face if he ever had to fight Jack again. Were it not for Jaune's presence, Team CRDL would've been the bottom rung among the freshman class.

"Rip him a new one, babe!" Miltia shouted, the red-and-black clad girl shrinking back a little when everyone's eyes fell on her.

"Normally I don't take requests, but for you I'll make an exception," Jack said sending a thumbs-up her way. "So… " he said crossing his arms and drumming his fingers, his opponent sweating bullets with a knuckle-whitening grip on his halberd. "You having trouble getting it up or what?" he asked seeing the blade of the teen's halberd lower to the ground then it should've been. "Don't worry, it happens to everyone. Well, not me, but…"

It was at this point that Jack began a monologue of sorts, wherein he implied that Sky had erectile dysfunction and/or a really small penis with numerous innuendo and double-entente. Such dialogue was clearly inspired by the Blue Tundra light novel series based on all the metaphors that by themselves were not necessarily "dirty" without the necessary context. Such dialogue may _also _have been inspired with how little Jack could take his opponent seriously.

Sky's fighting style was to keep his opponent at arm's length with the reach of his halberd, but against someone like Jack who made a reputation around beating the shit out of his opponents and making them look like total noobs, the blue-haired teen's feet may as well have been nailed to the floor. However, as Jack blathered on like Professor Port after having hit the sauce, the blue-haired teen began to gnash his teeth, every word leaving his opponent's mouth like a blow to his masculinity. Five minutes or so into the match, Sky had finally reached his breaking point, and with an indignant cry ran at Jack putting his all into an overhead swing.

_***CLANG***_

There was a loud crash of steel against iron, but Jack hadn't raised his weapon to block. Instead he took the attack head-on. _Literally_. For those that didn't look away, they'd have seen that, instead of his posture slouching as though he'd taken the hit with his Aura, his body instead had a brief metallic sheen running up it. Jack's arms remained crossed, but his fingers were no longer drumming on his forearm, and his mouth had been drawn into a thin like as he halberd blade rested atop his hair, Sky's arms shaking.

"Uh... What just happened?" Jaune asked as Jack's Aura only went down a small amount, despite being hit over the head with a halberd.

"What? You've never seen him do this before?" Miltia asked as Sky continued to take powerful swings at Jack's body, the same loud **_*CLANG* _**following each strike as Jack refused to budge, a very small amount of Aura being chipped away each time.

"Nope. What is it?" Ruby asked as Jack continued to weather the blows, a morbid fascination in her eyes as Sky tired himself out with each swing.

"Well, that's the Iron Mass technique of the Six Styles, a Faunus martial art dating back to the Dark Ages from what I've heard," Miltia answered. "Jack basically said that how the technique works, is by condensing the muscles in his body, and then gathering the majority of his Aura _into _his body while leaving only a small amount on the outside. Since his Aura is protecting his inside _and _his outside, physical damage can be greatly reduced."

"So... it's like he's _reinforcing _himself?" Jaune speculated.

"That would be how it works, yes," Miltia replied. "Of course, the drawback is that you can't _move _while you're using it, and elemental attacks like fire, ice, or lightning will still bypass it. Also, your body needs to be _very _strong to use the technique effectively, since it all comes down to _muscle _strength."

"Jack _does _look a bit more buff than usual," Yang idly noted as his every muscle was flexed.

"What are the other Six Styles?" Ruby asked.

"I only know of a few. There's the Storm Leg, which my sister used today to launch a wind-blade, the Moon Step, which Jack used to 'double jump', and the Finger Gun, where you finger-jab your opponent with the force of a bullet," Miltia counted off.

"I think he used that one on Dominic before finishing him off," Pyrrha noted. While she hadn't been able to _hear _what Jack said after he stabbed his clawed finger through his opponent's ribcage, she _could _read lips. It was only now that she knew what he meant.

"Hmmm... He's still taking damage though," Yang noted as Jack's Aura continued to be whittled down, his Aura now around **80%**. "You know how long he's known this?"

"Jack told me that his _uncle _taught him the Six Styles, or at least the fundamentals, though most of it seems to be self-taught," Miltia answered. "He told me that his uncle has reached such mastery of that skill, he could withstand cannon fire and not even lose Aura over it."

"Cannon fire? I find that a little hard to believe," Yang said crossing her arms.

"I'm just saying what he said to me," Miltia said shrugging her shoulders.

"It looks like Sky's running on empty," Blake commented, the blue-haired teen panting with bullets of sweat running down his head, the teen barely able to keep the blade of his halberd off the ground.

"So... You done yet?" Jack said moving for the first time in five minutes.

"Shut up... I still... have more Aura... then you..." Sky wheezed, his own Aura not even depleted, just his stamina.

"Really?" Jack asked tilting his head as he looked over to the scoreboard. "Well, I guess I'll just have to fix that, won't I?" he said slowly stepping backwards, Sky across from him attempting to raise his halberd to guard, only to drop the blade to the ground. Jack's feet now at the edge of the arena, he suddenly got down like a sprinter, hands on the ground, the claws on his feet digging into the ground. "Time do do something stupid!" **_*Boom* _**And he was off like a shot, hauling ass across the dueling stage, his opponent too tired to block or evade. Suddenly leaping into the air, arms held behind him and legs bent at the knee, he flew into a flying pelvic thrust with a loud cry of- "X-RAY AND VAV!"

**_*Crunch*_**

"Gah!" Sky cried as he was thrown back, landing flat on his back with blood dribbling out of his nose as Jack landed on his feet. "My face! My beautiful face!" the blue-haired teen cried as he padded his visage. **_*Crunch* _**"AH! My nose! You broke my nose!" he cried as he tilted his head back, blood dribbling down his face while Jack dusted off the front of his pants.

"That... was... AWESOME!" Jaune and Pyrrha gaped at the sight of the attack, the latter blushing beet red moments later and covering her face with her hands.

"Mr. Braxton... What in Remnant's name was _that_?!" Glynda gawped. Her bun had come slightly undone and her glasses were askew on her face, so it was fair to say that such an unorthodox attack had made her lose at least _some _of her composure.

"That was half of the tag-team attack X-Ray and Vav used on the Corpirate at the start of their superhero careers," Jack replied with a wave of his hand. "I read it in a comic book."

"Greatest! Comic book! Ever!" Jaune shouted from the stands. "Of all time!"

"And you thought something like that was _appropriate_!?" the woman gawped.

"Hey, I _said _I was going to do something stupid," Jack argued. "And look! I evened out our scores a bit," he said pointing to the scoreboard, Sky Lark's Aura now down to **70%**. "All in all, I see that as a perfectly legitimate combat strategy," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, the woman's eye twitching before she forced her composure back in, Sky stemming the bleeding as he forced his nose back into place. "What's the matter blue-boy? My balls of steel prove too much for you?" the Faunus asked tauntingly as he pat his crotch. "How 'bout this, I'll give you a free shot. C'mon, hit me with your best shot."

"You'll... regret that..." Sky scowled at Jack, his feet spread and arms crossed behind his back. Before Glynda could stop him, Sky had already run up to Jack, right foot drawn back as far as it could go before it impacted Jack's crotch with a loud- _***KRAK* **_-that reverberated through the arena.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

_***Whump***_

"OH MY GOOOOD!" Sky cried as he fell to his back, clutching his right foot which was now swelling within his shoe. "WHY ON REMNANT DID I WALK _INTO _THAT!?"

"Balls of steel, little boy blue. Balls. Of. Steel," Jack punctuated once more as he pat his crotch, Sky's Aura now down to **50% **and dropping as it migrated southward to stem the swelling. "I can kick him while he's down if you want," he said turning to Glynda.

"No... No, that won't be necessary," Glynda sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Were she anyone else, she'd be ripping out her hair and screaming obscenities into the heavens. However, given she was used to the... _eccentricities _of her fellow staff, she was able to take Jack's posturing in stride. _'Lord help the future generations if_ he _ever becomes a teacher_,' she thought to herself, trickling Aura into her head to soothe the approaching migraine. "The winner is Jack Braxton," she announced as she called the paramedics, Sky still clutching at his foot and face.

"Hey Milt," Yang said, the girl quirking a brow at the nickname. "Jack seemed really _confident _back then," she said referring to both the X-Ray &amp; Vav pelvic thrust, as well as taking that crotch-shot from Sky. "Level with me, girl. Has he done that before?"

"Well..."

**_*CRUNCH* _**_**"DAMMIT! I JUST GOT THIS PEDICURE!" **_Melanie's pained cry sounded in her memory, from a time where she too had acted upon similar impulses to Sky at what was assumed to be a golden opportunity.

"It may've happened... once or twice," the girl admitted with a chuckle.

Were Jack's actions inappropriate?

Definitely. Definitely.

Did she think any less of him for being true to himself?

Not in the slightest.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

"It was really nice seeing you again," Miltia told Jack with a smile, the two of them waiting at the Skyport by Beacon's courtyard for the next Airship back to Vale once classes had ended.

"Same here," Jack replied with a smile, the two holding hands as they looked into each others eyes. "You know… You could always stay for dinner. I'm sure your Visitor's Pass is good for one free meal."

"I would… But I should probably get back home before sis levels a city block or something," Miltia replied.

"Yeah, I can imagine her doing that," Jack admitted with a nod. "You take care of yourself."

"I will," Miltia replied with a smile, kissing his cheek before running off to the airship. "Later, Jack!" she called out with a wave, the doors closing behind her moments later.

"See ya," Jack said as the Airship began to lift off.

"So…" Yang groused as she walked up Jack from behind, the two of them the only ones at the skyport. "She your girlfriend, or what?" she asked, a trace of hesitation in her tone.

"Not my girlfriend," Jack admitted as he scratched the back of his head. "More like… friends-with-benefits. I guess."

"Oh?" Yang asked with a genuinely surprised expression. "Why not? You seem like such a good catch," she said nudging him playfully in the ribs. "I thought for sure you would've been _snatched up _by now by some pretty girl."

"I don't know," Jack replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "When we started going out, it was a long-distance relationship, and we kept in touch over the CCT. Then we started getting more… _personal_, but we never officially became boyfriend and girlfriend. Maybe she'd rather be with someone closer to home she could see every day… Or maybe just settle down with a nice _Human _boy instead of me."

"That _bitch_!" Yang growled with crimson eyes and flaming hair, cocking her Ember Celica as she glared ruefully at the Airship in the distance.

"Nonono! Yang, it's not like _that_!" Jack said waving his hands in front of her so she wouldn't do something foolish. "There are plenty of Human/Faunus couples out there, but more often than not they tend to adopt."

"Why's that? Human and Faunus _can_ have kids together," Yang stated.

"It's _true _that Humans and Faunus can have kids together, but unless you live in a culture very understanding toward Faunus, like Vacuo, or Menagerie, those half-breed children will often be labeled as Branded and discriminated against by _both _species," Jack explained. "If Miltia's worried about our kids being discriminated against worse than children of interracial couples in the old days, then I can't really hold it against her for thinking about their future."

"Branded?" Yang asked, confused since that term had never been brought up with her _own _Faunus friends. It was the same reason she knew that Humans and Faunus _could _have kids together. They never _tried _or anything, it just came up in conversation one day for… reasons.

"It's not a _species _name or anything. It's just the name that half-breed children between Humans and Faunus were saddled with by racist people. Like Cardin, or whats-his-face from my old team," he explained. "If you think _Faunus _have it bad, Branded have it so much _worse_."

"But… What does that mean for Ruby and Arthur?" Yang asked, a worried tone dominating her question.

"If there are more people like Ruby in the world by that point, any kids she might have with Arthur won't have anything to worry about. If not, I doubt she'll care. I imagine Ruby will be a very _good _mother with how much she's willing to help a complete stranger," he answered as he gestured to himself.

"Oh… Well, I'm probably getting ahead of myself anyway," Yang admitted.

" . . . You ship them _really _hard, don't you?"

" . . . Was it that obvious?"

"Kinda…"

" . . . Is that weird?"

"Not at all," Jack said shaking his head. "What you and your sister have… It's really beautiful. I'm actually a little jealous."

"Thanks," Yang returned with a smile. "But hey, you and Jill have the same thing, so there's nothing to be jealous of."

"Well, _maybe_, but it just isn't the same as your own flesh-and-blood," Jack sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I love Jill with all my heart, but… I can't help but wonder what my _real _sister would be like if she and my mother were still alive."

" . . . And if _you _ever had kids someday?" Yang asked hopefully.

"Whether they're Faunus or Branded, I'd protect them with my life," Jack said looking off into the distance. "And I'll treasure them every day, like my mother did with me."

"Yeah... Me too," Yang replied with a smile.

"Yeah… Wait what?!" Jack gawped.

"Nothing!" Yang returned, red-faced. "You totally misheard me!"

"R-Right…" Jack returned as he scratched his cheek.

"Hey uh… not to sound racist or anything, but aren't you a half-breed yourself?" Yang asked, wanting to talk about _anything _else right now.

"No, I'm a _mixed-_breed. Totally different thing," he said with a wave of his hand.

"Oh…" Yang returned, shifting nervously at the awkward air that surrounded them. "So… Wanna get something to eat?" she asked, wanting to talk about _literally _anything else.

" . . . Sure," Jack returned with a smile, the two walking back to Beacon side-by-side.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**Gol D. Roger aka "Gold" Roger, was the ROOT of me incorporating One Piece lore into the world of Remnant as a pseudo-crossover, given most characters have names inspired by colors, and well, Gold Roger is pretty self-explanatory; I kept his occupation as "privateer" (a fancy word for pirate) to remain true to his character. However, if you'll pay close attention to previous chapters, the mentioning of Gol D. Roger's name was not the FIRST One Piece reference used, it was merely the most-obvious one.**

**If I recall correctly, the FIRST reference was to Jack's "landing strategy", when I said he drew back his leg in preparation for an explosive kick. If Jack carrying Miltia away from Melanie was any indicator, his "landing strategy" was the Moon Step (called "Sky Walk"), even if the technique he LEARNED was different; Jack was wearing 100 kilos/220lbs weights back then, while now, he was able to much more freely move about with that extra weight taken off. The next one would've been when he stabbed his finger into Dominic's chest with the Shigan/Finger Gun back in Chapter 8 "Dirge's End"; that was a more-direct reference with One Piece dialogue in it, but either no one caught it, or no-one called me out on it.**

**As for why I made the Six Styles a martial art originating in the Faunus race's past, it seemed fitting because CP9 were either Zoan-Types, or _styled_ themselves after animals when they themselves were not Zoan. Also, like prior chapters have shown, the Faunus race, being the minority, has been the subject of discrimination for centuries, thus they don't have the same "privileges" as Humans, most prevalent being they might not be able to BUY conventional arms, and would have to make due on their own.**

**They can't even buy Dust in most places until they get torched and have to change business practices to save their bottom line. What makes you think they'd be able to buy swords or even GUNS without any hassle?**

**The mood changing after history class to Melanie &amp; Miltiades coming in, Jack's fight with Sky, followed by "the talk" at the end kinda snuck up on me, but it seemed contextually appropriate.**

**Anyway, I hope you Review with any questions or comments you may have.**


	16. Gnashing Fangs

Compared to Monday, the following Tuesday was rather sedate. Professor Port blathered endlessly about the adventures of his storied youth, Dr. Oobleck's tongue ran like a marathon runner on speed, and Professor Peach talked about edible plants and how to properly prepare them with child-like zeal. However, it was in Professor Goodwitch's class that things would get shaken up.

"The next match will be… Blake Belladonna versus Jack Braxton."

Suffice it to say, Blake and Jack's fight would be the most-exciting thing to happen all day.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

'_Alright… Stay calm, Blake,' _the Faunus girl told herself as she changed out of her uniform and into her combat attire. _'You're only facing who _might _be a bloodthirsty sociopath,' _she said to herself as she thought back to all the people he'd beaten into submission. The cluster of seats in class that had been perpetually empty after the first week were a constant reminder that a pissed-off Jack was _not _someone you wanted to mess with.

**Don't mess with the honey badger **indeed.

'_As long as you A) Don't let him hit you, and B) Don't talk smack about his mother, you should be totally,_ totally _fine,' _she thought to herself reassuringly as she separated her pistol/katana from her cleaver, checking the ammo magazine. _'Twelve shots… And I've got three spare mags in reserve,' _she said inventorying what she had on hand.

While her claws _were _always an option if things got dicey, doing so would instantly blow her cover.

'_Three weeks down… Three years and eleven months to go,' _Blake thought with a sigh, a heavy weight pressing itself down on her shoulders as her ears twitched.

So many times she wanted to come out and tell her teammates the truth. Her partner, Yang, seemed pretty open-minded when it came to Faunus, and wasn't one to hide her obvious attraction for the only other Faunus in the room. Ruby not _only _went out of her way to lavish in the shows of brotherly love and encouragement Jack would give her from time to time, but she was _clearly _infatuated with a Faunus in her own age group, even if she didn't recognize it. When it came to _Weiss_… That's what made things decisively harder.

For obvious reasons, Weiss and Jack _hated _one another. In fact they hated one another with such a passion that if there were even the slightest _iota_ of sexual tension between them, Blake was almost positive they'd be having hot, steamy, NoL-worthy sex behind closed doors… clothes scattered around the store room at the edge of campus… their bodies writhing and dripping with sweat… the heiress screaming out Jack's name before he smothered her lips with his own and muffling her cry of ecstasy… nailing her to the wall with his throbbing shaft, the heiress' moist walls quivering around him as her hands roved across his battle-scared body…

**Oh **_**yeayah**_**! I like where **_**this **_**is going!**

**Dammit Tucker! Get the fuck out of the narrative!**

**Hey, this is **_**your **_**story, I'm just color-commentating.**

**I'm blue.**

**We all know what color you are, Caboose.**

_***Fun Party Sound***_

**. . . Tucker did it.**

**Dude, I'm right here. You can**_**not **_**blame that on me.**

**. . . Tucker said it.**

_**Both **_**of you shut the fuck up! TEX!**

**Yo.**

**Get rid of these two! NOW!**

**Kay.**

**Tex, wait, Textextextextex** **_*POW*_**** AGH! My blood! She punched out ALL my blood!**

**Sandvich.**

'_FOCUS!' _Blake cried as she clapped her hands against her face before the smut train could leave the station. _'You can write steamy fanfiction about your teammates later! Right now you need to get your head in the game!' _she cried pumping herself up. _'I__ can win! I feel great! I—CAN—DO—THIS!' _she chanted to herself, slamming her locker before splashing cold water on her face.

The flushing sufficiently hidden, Blake turned around and strode through the tunnel from the changing room to the arena, Jack leaving his own tunnel at around the same time. The two ascended the stage almost simultaneously, weapons at the ready, Professor Goodwitch off to the side. Those with good-enough eyes would see that on her Scroll she already had paramedics on standby.

"Jack."

"What is it?"

"Please don't hit me in the face with your meat," she said with a flat expression.

"Hey, that was _one _time!" Jack blurted out, having the decency to blush this time.

"I just want to be very clear where our boundaries lie."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. No turning left and smacking you with my dick," Jack sighed as he rubbed his face.

"Timer's running," Glynda told the two as she stepped back. Said timer was a sixty-second counter meant to give fighters a chance to clear their heads before rushing headlong into combat with the intent of beating the stuffing out of one another. Some thought it was to raise tension for the audience, but it was actually a silent lesson in teaching students how to keep a cool head before combat.

"One more thing."

"What is it?"

"Just because we're on the same team, doesn't mean I want you to hold back," the black-haired beauty stated as she shifted her feet. "Hit me with everything you've got!" she said, her hand going to her cleaver.

"Oh… I was _planning_ on it," Jack said with a small smile as the timer hit zero, the two leaping into action.

Blake moved first, drawing her cleaver from her back and probing Jack's guard with a few swings, only to have each blow parried with the flat of the blade. She attempted to strafe him with her Semblance, but his feet were always in motion, keeping his back out of reach no matter how she tried. Deciding to mix things up, Blake twirled her cleaver like Jack would with his axe, adding momentum to her weapon before swinging it into his right side. **_*BAM* _**Instead of biting into his side and his Aura, the Honey Badger Faunus sandwiched the blade between his knee and elbow, pinning the weapon in place.

"This move has no name. It's that simple of a move. In other words, that's just how mediocre your attack is," Jack said dismissively, Blake's brow twitching angrily, the tone shifting _very _rapidly from when they'd spoken a minute ago.

"Bullshit!" she hissed, her eyes turning more cat-like.

Separating her katana from her cleaver, Blake quickly opened fire, Jack's abdomen eating six rounds before he released her weapon to dodge the remaining six. Leaping back and slapping her cleaver onto her back, Blake's compound blade folded into a kama before she sent it flying with a ***_BANG* _**As Jack back pedalled, the grin on his face never left as he moved around the Gambol Shroud's strikes, much to Blake's irritation as he continued to bob and weave like a reed in the wind.

Her magazine exhausted, Jack bolted forward as Blake swapped them out. A _***click***_ meeting Blake's ears as the mag slid into her pistol's magwell, she sent the next strike at Jack's smug grin, which she was slowly growing to hate. Tilting his head away, the blade brushing his hair away instead of cutting it, the Faunus' left hand snaked up, seizing the ribbon before he drew his arm back. Raising his right shin, he quickly twirled it around the length of the ribbon before snagging it beneath the sole of his sandal and brought it down with a **_*CRAK*_**, the ribbon drawing taut and hauling Blake off her feet.

"Oof!" Blake grunted as she was unceremoniously deposited at her opponents feet, her arm almost pulled from its socket. Propping herself on her good arm, she looked up to see that Jack had leaned down toward her at the waist, the smile on his face like one you'd have after seeing a good friend for the first time in a long while. When his lips pulled back in a smirk, his golden-amber eyes blinked to crimson, a sense of dread washing over like a bucket of ice water.

That ice water-feeling was soon replaced by pain as Jack kicked her when she was down, the Faunus girl almost biting her tongue off as she was sent tumbling head over heels. The crowd let out a collective wince as the girl flew backwards, and at the moment the ribbon drew taut, Blake made the snap-second decision to undo the ribbon, gaining more ground from Jack as her ribbon slapped his ankle with a **_*SMACK*_**

"Well ain't _that _a kick in the head?" Jack said cockily as he gathered up Blake's ribbon in his hand, experimentally bobbing Blake's kama up and down with one hand as he synched his axe to his side with the other.

"Don't you fucking _dare_..." Blake growled.

"Mmmmmm..." he hummed like he were considering it. "Nah!"

Snapping the blade out to full length, Jack rushed at her with the new blade at his side, ribbon held in his off-hand as he ran at her before leaping high into the air, somersaulting forward and adding tremendous power to his strike. Raising her cleaver and bracing herself at the last second, Blake's knees buckled as Jack came down right on top of her, the two Aura-empowered blades colliding with a loud **_*KIN* _**Blake's boots slowly forced back as Jack pressed forward against her blade, the two were practically nose-to-nose as his strength overpowered her own. Another smirk appearing on his face, Jack suddenly back flipped, katana blade folding back as he took aim, firing a trio of shots from mid-air.

Registering the muzzle flashes, in three deft strokes Blake blocked each bullet, a small amount of Aura lost each time, but far better than if she'd been hit directly. As Jack landed on his feet, much like a cat, the next three shots he fired were aimed at her feet, each one forcing her to backpedal lest she lose a toe. Her body suddenly jerked to a stop, halting her from her retreat after the last shot. Looking down, Blake gawped at the sight of her ribbon sloppily tied around her cleaver's handle, drawn taut and halting her retreat.

_'When did he-' _Blake thought before a sudden jerk pulled her cleaver right out of her hands, a quintet of shots flying around the shadow of her blade and striking true, starting at her left shoulder and tracing a line across her body before ending at her right thigh. A Shadow took the final bullet, its creator combat rolling to the side as her eyes followed Jack, her own pistol leveled towards her only to **_*click* _**empty.

_'It's run dry,' _Blake thought with a relieved sigh as she cast a quick glance at the scoreboard. Her Aura left at around **60% **from the battle thus far while Jack's was down to **90%**. That relief was soon replaced by panic as Jack drew out a familiar magazine, ejecting the Gambol Shroud's spent clip and slamming the fresh mag into the magwell. _'When did he-' _Blake thought again, her hand going to the magnetic plate on her back, feeling only _one _spare magazine instead of two. _'Was that_ also _from __Shundo?_' she thought, wondering what else Jack may've done in the few seconds he slipped within her guard.

Jack's axe blade still at his left side, he held Blake's pistol in his right hand, cleaver in the left, aiming the prior right at Blake who tensed to dodge. His finger resting by the trigger, the tension within the stage continued to rise, the disguised Faunus contemplating a way to turn this match around. Just as she was about to surrender, Jack lazily shrugged his shoulders, her weapons clattering to the ground at his feet before he kicked them across the stage, her pistol and cleaver sliding to a stop halfway between them. Looking back up from her weapons, and slapping herself from taking her eyes off of him, Jack simply leaned forward slightly, a taunting look in his eyes as he made a 'come hither' motion with his right index finger.

Blake's golden-amber eyes narrowing up at him in response, her gaze switched between her opponent and her weapons, and then back again. She knew a trap when she saw one. In order to get her weapons back, she'd have to walk right _towards_ Jack, and if he caught her first... She really regretted her telling him not to hold back.

Breathing deeply through her nose, she exhaled in a long sigh as she shifted her feet beneath her, Jack making no show of readiness to move towards her at a moment's notice. Suddenly shifting her right foot behind her, Blake was off like a shot towards her weapons, and like predicted, Jack was quick to do the same. However, instead of grabbing her weapons, she ran _past _them, flipping forward in the air and coiling her legs to her body like a spring before delivering a blitz of kicks to Jack's body. His arms crossed to block the flurry of blows, a final powerful double-kick from the Cat Faunus forced Jack to slide back, that same kick enabling Blake to grab her weapons at the bottom of her backflip.

Right before she could land on her feet however, a 12-Gauge slug slammed bodily into her stomach, sending her tumbling backwards. Jack walking slowly towards her, flipping his lever-action shotgun reloaded his weapon and fired another shot at her. Cleaver back in hand, Blake began to block the shots even as Jack put the pressure on her. Once she'd gotten a sense of his rhythm, at the halfway point in his next reloading twirl, Blake took aim and fired off a succession of rounds at her opponent, her opponent bringing his weapon out of the line of fire behind his back while his left forearm went in front of his eyes, body locking up.

_'Tch,' _Blake clicked her tongue as her opponent's hastily-raised Iron Mass stemmed some of the damage. The 12-Gauge slug that caught her right in the stomach had downed her Aura to **48****% **for hitting dead center, while Jack's Aura had now been lowered to **69****% **after she'd emptied her magazine into him. Getting to her feet, she reloaded her pistol on the go, knowing if she didn't end things now, Jack would wear her down before doing something potentially embarrassing to her.

Like repeatedly punching her in the face.

_'If I can cross my blades at his neck, I don't have to beat him, just make him yield.'_

Plan in mind, Blake wielded her blades with every iota of skill she could muster, her opponent flexing his claws in favor of his axe-gun. The rapid **_*Kin-kin*Kin-kin*Kin-kin-kin* _**of weapon-clashing filled her ears, but soon became a dull din as her heart pounded in her ears. Her muscles beginning to ache and burn as the clash continued, neither side gaining ground, their weapons of choice blurs of black amid the golden sparks that danced around them. After what felt like an eternity, a glimmer of hope appeared, the Faunus girl placing her blades between her opponent's index and middle fingers, before with a twirl of her wrists and every ounce of her strength, she forced his arms outward, leaving his center exposed.

_'Got him!' _Blake thought the moment the tides turned. Aiming to cross her blades at his neck, the corner of Jack's lips twisted up in a smirk, as instead of moving to block or evade, he reached _around_, to the top of her head. _'No!' _she almost cried aloud as her opponent's scarred hand descended upon her bow. His hand clamping down, the black-haired beauty had already replaced herself with a Shadow that faded away like a mirage. _'Dammit!' _she cursed as her opponent's attacks became focused on the only thing protecting her secret, the Faunus girl's offense swapped to a desperate defense. Jack even went as far as to add his axe to the mix, doubling his reach with wide swings.

This sudden paradigm shift had turned the entire tide of battle in an instant, the black-haired beauty completely flat-footed and unable to regain the momentum she lost as Jack fought more aggressively than before. Using a Shadow to avoid what would've been a solid axe hit to her midsection, unlike most, Jack blitzed _through _her incorporeal Shadow, the right corkscrew punch that caught her in the face with a _***POW***_ completely unavoidable.

"Ouch. Looks like I punched the _Blake _right offa ya," Jack said with a smile and a shrug as the girl slid backwards from that hit.

"Hey! That's _my _line!" both Yang and Nora shouted from the stands.

'_Damn… That really smarts…' _Blake cursed as her hand went to her left eye, just _knowing _it would bruise in the next few minutes. Before she could get back into the fight however, Jack's left sandal pinned her painfully against the stage floor, her Aura taking another hit as the ground cracked beneath her. "Aagh!" she cried as her opponent rather painfully jabbed the end of his shotgun/axe into her left breast.

"Yield," Jack said with a cold expression in his eyes, his finger ever-so-slowly inching towards the trigger.

"Come on Blake! Get out of there! You can do it!" Yang shouted in encouragement from the stands.

"Use another Bunshin no Jutsu!" Ruby cried out.

'_I can't…' _Blake cursed as Jack added a small iota of weight to her abdomen, his foot pressing against the edge of her ribcage. While her Kawamiri-esque technique with her Semblance could propel her through open air, if she were _physically _pinned by a force she couldn't extricate herself from, all she'd do was violently jerk her body in place, maybe hurt herself worse. It's why she couldn't use her Semblance to escape from rope or nets, since it wasn't teleportation, but simply a small burst of Aura-boosted speed that left a Shadow behind.

"I… I forfeit," Blake sighed after a few moments. Shotgun barrel pressed right against her bosom, her Aura would be hard-pressed to protect her from a 12-Gauge slug at point-blank range. At **25%**, her Aura was only a trickle away from the **20% **red zone.

"Jack Braxton wins," Glynda announced, releasing a breath she'd unknowingly been holding as Jack removed his shotgun from his Teammate's chest with zero protest. Blake tiredly looked up at the helping hand offered to her, before slapping it away with the back of her hand, rolling over before getting her feet underneath her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I feel like this is going to become a trend," Jack said to himself. Class had ended a little while ago, and he'd gotten a message through his Scroll's Team Channel to meet Blake on the roof of the dorm. At the moment he was alone, arms crossed as he looked out into the distance.

A few minutes later and the door creaked open, a cross-looking Blake stomping towards him, a rather prominent shiner dominating the left side of her face. Aura didn't protect you against _everything _you know, otherwise Hunters wouldn't die. "Hey there, Blake," he said with a smile in a wave before he gained a flat expression. "The fuck did you call me here for?"

"In a minute," Blake said curtly to him as she leaned over the edge of the roof, peering into all the windows of the fourth floor.

'_I could push her over right now… Nobody'd be the wiser,' _Jack thought to himself as he stared at the opportunity being tantalizingly dangled before him. _'Course… She'd probably have a clone take the fall, or she'd just land on her feet,' _he said taking in her lithe, cat-like frame. And maybe her firm derriere, but that last one was only momentary.

She and Adam may've never _technically _been an item, but it was still weird to think of his friend's partner like that.

_'Ex-friend,' _Jack corrected himself. He knew this _would _happen when he left the White Fang, he'd spent days of meditation preparing himself for the inevitability of it. But the feeling of emptiness at having a long-time friend become foe was still there.

"Alright… We're alone," Blake said with a satisfied before she rounded on her teammate. Taking a deep breath through her nose to calm herself, she then screamed- "What the fuck was _that _about?!"

"Why whatever do you mean, oh beloved teammate of mine?" Jack said with sarcastic sincerity _dripping _off his tongue.

"You know _damn _well what I'm talking about!" the normally-stoic girl raged, her bow twitching angrily atop her head. "I want to know why you kept trying to _unmask _me in class today!"

"Oh _thaaat_…" Jack drawled out. "Answer's simple, kitty cat. I don't like your choice in hair accessories."

"What does _that _have to do with anything?"

"EVERYTHING!" Jack raged as his eyes flashed red, his teammate actually jumping back before he blinked them back to jade. "Look, you wanna know _why _I'm not a big fan of the bow?"

"Enlighten me," Blake said with crossed arms. Because right now she was pretty pissed.

"It's because people like you _really _piss me off!"

"People like _me_?" she accused.

"Yeah! Our forefathers fought, bled, and _died _so people like you could walk around freely instead of living out our days on the ass-end of the world in a penal colony! And _how _do you honor their sacrifice? You put on a damned _hair _accessory and hide who you are out of shame, spitting _all over _those that died for your freedom!" Jack snapped back at her. "I don't know what sickens me more. People like you that are so-ashamed of their heritage they'd do something as gutless as _this_, or that Humans are so fucking _stupid _they can't even see trough it! _Seriously_! You eat tuna or fish for _every fucking meal _and you chug milk like it's going out of style! How has no-one found out yet?!"

"Oh, like _you've _never wanted to hide before!" Blake snapped back.

"No, I have _not_! Because unlike _you_, I'm not ashamed of who I am!" Jack said jabbing a finger in the girl's face, the weight of his conviction forcing Blake to flinch back, and shrink in on herself. "I _love _the body my mother gave me, and nothing will ever change that."

"Well then… Why do you go out of your way to antagonize people like that?" she asked.

During the break-up match between the members of Team DIRJ, Jack had taunted and belittled his soon-to-be-former teammates, picking them apart and breaking them down like rank-and-file amateurs. Whenever he fought the members of Team CRDL who were largely Anti-Faunus, he'd go out of his way to kick the stuffing out of them in the most embarrassing way possible. He certainly wasn't making things any easier on himself, or other Faunus in general, and the only reason they hadn't retaliated outside the classroom is because three quarters of Dirge were _still _in the hospital recovering from bones he'd broken like twigs.

"I'm basically a living symbol of how badly Humans got their asses kicked in a numbers' war they were dead to rights to win. And that isn't something any amount of _playing nice _is going to change," he said pointing at his characteristic hair. "I figure, if they're going to treat me like a piece of shit, I might as well _act _like one. Give them an actual _reason _to hate me like they do. After all, where's the fun of being blamed for something if you don't get to actually _do it_?"

"What about Ruby? And Yang?" Blake asked. "You dote on Ruby like a little sister, and you and Yang are practically joined at the hip."

"Ruby got me out of a team that made me sleep outside by majority vote, and Yang treats me like a _person _instead of an animal," Jack answered. "_Them _I actually like. I don't really care one way or another for anyone else at this school."

Don't get him wrong, he got along with Nora and Pyrrha just fine, but they weren't in his "trusted friends" list just yet. He and Ren didn't really have a reason to talk to one another, and Jaune was... well... Jaune.

"What about Weiss? Why do you go out of your way to antagonize _her_?" she wondered. A great deal of the friction within Team RWBY+1's room came solely from the Faunus across from her and the Schnee heiress. It may've had the unintended consequence of helping everyone else get along _better_, like some kind of lightning rod of dysfunctionality, but he was still needlessly pissing her off at every opportunity.

"The girl's from a line of in-bred, noble-born, racist _white _trash that treated Faunus like animals or slaves for _centuries_. Even if I play nice with her, unless she's willing to take that first step alongside me, she's still going to turn her nose up at me like something you'd find in the gutter," he returned.

Blake nodded her head, unable to deny his words. The White Fang at its _inception _tried to extend an olive branch after the last war, take the road of non-violence towards equality. However, even after all of the boycotts and the peaceful protests, because the _other _side wasn't willing to take that same step, all of that effort proved futile, the march towards an equal world constantly stonewalled by those in power who didn't want the world to change, or could squeeze the most profit from the current status quo.

"I suppose I can't really argue with you when you put it like that," Blake slumped her shoulders. She'd called him up there hoping to talk some sense into him, maybe get him to _help _her with her secret for the next four years, but after hearing his words, it was obvious he wanted no part of it. _'And how can I blame him? I _also _looked down on Faunus that would hide who they were, yet I still put this little black bow in my hair,' _she said twitching her ears slightly. "So… Where do we go from here?"

"Read. My. Lips," Jack punctuated. "I won't say anything about your dirty little secret, I owe you _that _much. But when this turns pear-shaped, and it _will _turn pear-shaped," he said with emphasis, "I'm not dragging your sorry ass out of the fire. _That _bridge you're going to have to mend yourself. Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth?"

" . . . Crystal…" was all the girl could croak out.

"Excellent!" Jack clapped his hands with a smile. "I'm glad we could come to an understanding. Now, I'd love to stand here and chat with you all day, maybe talk about our tastes in adult literature, but I've got homework that needs doing. Later, teammie," he said as he walked off.

"Wait!" she called out. "What are we going to tell the others? They'll notice the tension between us sooner or later. You butting heads with Weiss, _that _they'll understand. But as far as they know, I've never done anything to warrant that kind of scorn."

" . . . Just because I said I wouldn't help you out when things turned pear-shaped, doesn't mean we can't be friends in the meantime," he compromised, getting a shocked look out of the girl as the atmosphere around him changed _radically_. "What? You look so surprised about this?"

"Well… Yeah. Didn't you basically say you hated my guts a second ago?"

"I dislike what you _do_ out of principle," he corrected her. "I never said anything about _hating_ you."

"Could've fooled me," she said crossing her arms, with how roughly he treated her back there.

"Blake. Trust me, if I _hated _you... You'd know it," he said with a sickly-sweet smile, his now-crimson orbs boring into her soul, causing a chill to run up the girl's spine until he tore his gaze from her and walked off. "At the very least… talk to _Yang _about it. She's your _partner_. It'll probably make things a little easier in the long run if _someone _other than me knows, and she really _does _want to be good friends with you. You just need need to stop being antisocial like a lazy house cat."

"I am _not _lazy," Blake hissed back. "And... Thanks. I'll take your advice under consideration," she said with a smile, feeling like she understood her fellow Faunus just a little bit better.

"You're welcome," Jack replied lazily. "Oh, and before I forget! You should put some ice on that shiner of yours," he said pointing at her bad eye. "I recommend frozen peas instead of a pork chop. That way Yang can't make any _meat_ jokes after what happened yesterday."

"You just _had _to ruin the moment, didn't you?" Blake deadpanned.

"Suck it up, buttercup. I'm an asshole. It's what I do," Jack returned with a smile on his face and no fucks given.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**DELETED SCENE:  
**

**"Hey Jack... Can I ask you something?" Blake asked as the two descended the stairs from the roof.**

**"You just did."**

**" . . . "**

**"You can ask me something else if you want."**

**"Did you really go at me full-tilt?"**

**"What makes you ask that?"**

**"I don't know, I just... When I fought you, I felt a little... underwhelmed," Blake confessed. "There was this... this _energy _in the air when you fought Pyrrha... But it just wasn't there when you and I crossed swords."**

**"If you were a man, that'd be an opening for all _kinds _of gay sex jokes."**

**"Will you let me get to the fucking point!?"**

**"What _is _your point?"**

**"The point I'm trying to make is..." she said letting out a sigh. "How much of your power did I make you pull out?" she asked. "Be honest. I can take it."  
**

**"I dunno. Thirty percent? Maybe less?"**

**"Th-_Thirty_!?" Blake gawped at how small that was compared to a full hundred.**

**"Well, for one thing, I didn't use my Semblance. That's a big part of it right there," he said holding up a finger.  
**

**"Yeah, I kinda noticed the lack of angry crimson flames and vein-bulging."**

**"You didn't talk smack about my primary birth-giver," he said raising another.  
**

**"As would no moderately-intelligent person without a death wish."**

**"I didn't start air-hopping to attack you from odd angles."**

**"I still think that's a really cheap technique by the way."**

**"I didn't take off my weights."**

**"Where'd you even _get _those things?"**

**"I wasn't trying to kill you."**

**"Thank goddess for small miracles."**

**"You didn't talk smack about my primary birth-giver."**

**"You already said that," Blake deadpanned.**

**"And the rest... I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve," Jack replied with a shrug. "I didn't spent five years in the Frontier for nothing you know. And we're not even out of our first month at Beacon yet."**

**"Yeah, speaking of which... When it comes to the Six Styles... Can you use the Roku-Oh-Gun?" she asked, hoping she wouldn't regret asking. She herself could use the Rankyaku, or at least the variant she could channel through her swords. But aside from that, she hadn't really thought to learn any others during her time in the White Fang. Her Semblance acting like two made her a little complacent in that regard.**

**"It's pronounced _Rokuogan_, and _heck no_. I'm nowhere _near _that level. I'm talking _years _of practice away from that. I simply can't relax enough to get that one right," Jack replied, Blake letting out a sigh of relief, thankful she wouldn't find herself on the receiving end of one of _those_. Its destructive power was _legendary, _having slain six Aura-using Kings in its heyday before the Great War. _W__ell_ before Faunus began formally learning how to use Aura themselves.**

**"Is it alright if I ask you another question? Separate from the one I just asked," she reiterated before she could walk into another one.**

**"Shoot."**

**"If you'd gotten a hold of me, but _didn't _want to pull off my ribbon... Would you have punched me repeatedly in the face?"  
**

**"No, of course not."**

**"Oh thank god," Blake sighed in relief.**

**"I'd have taken you from behind and sent you screaming into the stands with your hands on your ass."**

**" . . . _Come _again?"**

**"Not the _fun _way mind you. I'd hit you with the Thousand Years of Pain ninja technique," Jack waved off. "I read it in a manga once."**

**"Of course you did," Blake sighed. Like so many other people, she'd contributed to Jack's "X-Ray &amp; Vav" moment going viral after the footage leaked.**

**"Did you want to ask me anything else?"**

**"No..." Blake replied, knowing that whenever she talked to him from then on, she'd have to temper her sense of decency in expectation first.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**I felt like I needed to explain the dynamic between Jack and Blake, since up until this point I've been largely-fixated on Jack's relation with Ruby and Yang, his lack-thereof with Weiss, and his _developing _friendship with Pyrrha. The convention is that Blake is antisocial, like a cat, and a bit of a loner, so her interactions with Jack tended to be limited to her supporting him from the sidelines, largely against Weiss. **

**It wasn't until things came to a head when they fought, that I had the opportunity to set them aside and have them work out their grievances with one another, due to the obvious differences in their respective ideologies. To Jack, whose father and **_**his **_**father fought in the Faunus Rights Revolution, Blake's **_**intentional **_**concealment of her Faunus heritage is like a smack to the face. Blake on the other hand, wants to attain peace through nonviolence, and condemns Jack's antagonistic actions towards Remnant's dominant sapient species, because it makes things harder for the rest of Faunuskind.  
**

**Compared to the longer narratives in previous chapters, this "Arc of Conflict" arc will have shorter chapters in comparison, dealing largely in interpersonal character development after a clashing of fists. As is said in numerous anime and fictional media, sometimes the best way for people to come to an understanding with one another, is by crossing fists on the field of battle.**

**As for the deleted scene, Blake talking THAT much seemed a little... well, _much_, hence why I made it separate from the main narrative. **

**I also did so to answer any questions people who watched One Piece might have about Jack since he knows the Remnant-bound version of the Six Styles. One Piece-wise, if you take Aura out of the equation, his SKILL with the Rokushiki would be somewhere between Nero and Kalifa; CP9's bottom 2 rungs before the prior's death. Assuming Nero had a Doriki/Power Level of at LEAST 500, and Kalifa's canon-level of 630, I'd estimate Jack's level of skill with the Rokushiki to be about that of a CP9 member with a Doriki of around 570. For example, Jack may know the Soru &amp; Geppo, but he can't use them both at the same time, and I've left clues as to which one he DOESN'T know.  
**

**I hope you'll leave Reviews with any questions and/or comments you may have.**


	17. Thunderstruck

"The last match of the day will be Jack Braxton versus Nora Valkyrie," Glynda announced the following day.

"Woohoo!" Nora whooped as she leapt up from her seat. "Winner, winner, pancake dinner!" she cheered as she ran off to the locker room to get changed.

"You know, I think this is the first time someone was _happy _after finding out they had to fight Jack," Ruby noted aloud. Most other people, largely Jaune and members of Team Cardinal, dragged their feet when it came time for them to fight him, but Nora was practically _skipping _to the locker room.

"Well, he _does _punch most of his sparring partners repeatedly in the face," Ren noted aloud.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Weiss groaned as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. If it wasn't his filthy mouth spewing obscenities like it was going out of style, it was his crude and thuggish fighting style that completely humiliated his opponents. Future defenders of the world should _not _get repeatedly punched in the face during basic training.

"You have to admit, it _is _kinda hilarious," Yang chuckled. "What do _you _think?" she asked turning to Blake.

"Better her then me," Blake commented flatly as she read her book. Even with Aura, the bruise around her eye would _still _need another day to heal over. Apart from the other aches and pains from when Jack worked her over, the only thing that actually _hurt _was her pride.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hiya, Jack!" Nora greeted as she skipped onto the sage, Magnhild held cutely behind her back.

"Hello, Nora," Jack returned with his axe in his hand.

"Looks like it's just you and me today, huh?"

"Yeah. It's your first time with me, so I'll try to be gentle."

A retching noise soon came from the stands.

"Grow up, Weiss. It's just idle banter," Jack said over his shoulder.

"Yeah, grow up, _Weisscream_, we're only _talking_," Nora returned with a toothy grin.

An infuriated shout ripped through the air a moment later.

Obviously, _someone _didn't like being told to 'grow up' by _Nora _of all people. Or being called _Weisscream_.

"Hey Jack, I've got a question."

"Shoot."

"Are you going to hit me in the face with your meat?"

"Oh my goddess, is _everyone _I fight from now on going to ask me that?"

"Just so we're clear… I'm not cool with that kind of thing until the third date."

"I'll keep that in mind," Jack deadpanned. " . . . Wait, what?"

_***BZZZT***_

"Fightin' time!" Nora whooped as the starting buzzer went off. Transforming her Magnhild, she fired an opening shot at Jack's feet, the Faunus back flipping out of the way. The next one was aimed at center mass, Jack pressing himself to the ground moments before it passed overhead. However, a shockwave and a cloud of pink smoke washed over him, buffeting him from behind.

'_The barrier? Shit!' _Jack cursed as he sprinted to the left, Nora's following volley slamming into the forcefield at the edge of the stage, forcing him further towards the center which Nora currently held. The first few shots missed, but a belt of fresh grenades later and Nora's shots began getting closer to home. No direct hits were landed, but the splash damage whittled away at Jack's Aura as he dodged. Unable to retaliate after Nora took the initiative, Jack was forced to holster his weapon and focus largely on not getting hit.

'_Looks like I'll have to take this up close and personal!' _Jack thought as he rushed headlong towards Nora, weaving around the grenades she sent his way. Coiling his legs like springs, digging his claws into the floor, he was off like a shot, lunging toward Nora's midsection. However, before he could reach her, the ginger girl suddenly leapt into the air with explosive force, her shoeprints embedded deeply into the floor as she soared skyward. _*Sniff*Sniff* 'Ozone…?' _he thought as he passed through where she once was.

Digging his claws into the floor and wresting his momentum, Jack looked skyward, squinting his eyes around the lights to see Nora high above the stands. A trigger-pull later and she was sent careening down towards him, flipping with her Magnhild extended as she spun towards him.

"SMASH!" Nora shouted as she brought her hammer down with a loud _***BOOOOM***_, the center of the arena violently cratering and a massive plume of dust kicked up around them. It took several seconds for the dust cloud to fall away from the two, but when it did, jaws had dropped.

Instead of being smashed into the floor, Jack had actually _stopped _the attack with what appeared to be a fierce uppercut, his feet embedded in the ground up to the ankles. Nora's core strength was _ridiculous_, because she was _still _suspending herself above her hammer mid-smash.

The two's brows twitching as their bodies shook from the force, Jack was first to move, sliding his fist out from under the end of Nora's hammer and wrapping it round Magnhild's neck. Drawing his arm back, he leaned forward and dealt a devastating head butt to his opponent, a loud _***THWAK* **_echoing through the air as the ginger girl was sent back. Nora was quick to land on her feet, but by the time she had, Jack had already punched the ground and freed himself to flip backwards, the two at a stalemate for several seconds.

That stalemate was broken when a grin broke across Nora's face, the front end of her Magnhild folding down revealing all six of her grenades. Jack's eyes widened as all six were fired at him simultaneously, but those very same eyes soon turned vacant, his intuition guiding him to leap _through _the ring of grenades, all of which detonated well away from him. A certain ginger lamented the fact that the sextuplet of grenades was not heart-shaped like she wanted, but shrugged it off.

'_Oh well,' _Nora thought as she ran forward to meet her opponent. "Say hello to my little friend!" she cackled as her weapon transformed again, war hammer drawn back and Aura visibly flooding into the end, causing it to glow brilliantly. His feet touching the ground, Jack quickly crossed his arms to block, at the very least thankful he wasn't going to get another grenade to the face.

At the moment of contact, Nora's Aura was released in a single burst, and to everyone's surprise, a pink lion head of Aura appeared, a loud _***ROAR* **_bellowing into the air as her hammer broke through Jack's guard and struck him in the ribs. The Faunus was knocked clean off his feet, bodily tumbling head over heels before he clawed the ground to wrest his momentum. Unfortunately for him, Nora had already reloaded, a fresh grenade striking him in the face, followed by another, and another, and another, and another, and _another _until his back was forced to the forcefield at the edge of the stage, Nora's Magnhild once again clicking empty causing the girl to pout.

"Jack! Are you okay?" Ruby shouted from the stands as the pink mushroom clouds disappeared.

"Yeah! Just _*WHEEZE* _peachy!" Jack wheezed as his hand suddenly went to his side.

"Mr. Braxton, are you alright?" Glynda asked, wondering if she'd have to call the fight. Looking down into her Scroll and running a quick diagnostic, she discovered that Nora's strike had actually broken one of his ribs to the point that it was putting pressure on his lung.

Or rather, her strike had _re_-broken the rib from a pre-existing fracture.

"I'm calling the fight-" she decided.

"No!" Jack snapped as he rose to full height. "I've been _*WHEEZE*_ through worse. _*WHEEZE*_ I can stillfight!" he growled as he extended the claws on his right hand. Flexing and cracking his fingers, before the woman could object, Jack dug his claws into the depressed area with a _***squelch***_, his face grimacing as he fished around before straightening his rib with a sickening _***CRACK* **_"It'll take more than this to stop me!" Jack snarled as his eyes turned crimson. "C'mon pancake-tits! Is that the best you've got?"

"No-one mocks my pancakes! _Or _my titties!" Nora snarled as she flexed her arms, the motion doing _wondrous _things to her bosom as she charged her Aura.

"Ha! As if your titless ass intimidates me!" Jack snapped as he drew his blood-stained claws back. Eyes glinting as streams of Aura raced along his limb, once his Aura had condensed at his fingertips, he snapped the arm forward, crimson blades shaped like angry gulls screeching through the air.

"Whoa!" Nora yelped as she charged pink lightning into her legs before jumping into the air. She was right in doing so, because a moment later the ground at her feet looked like the side of a couch after an angry house cat on a bender walked by.

"Bad move!" Jack snarled as he drew his claws hand to the right, another cascade of angry red blades flying through the air towards the airborne Nora, who lacked the means to dodge.

"Crapbaskets!" the ginger girl yelped as she crossed her arms. Her "force field" weathered the assault, but the angry blades sheared her clothing until it barely preserved her modesty, the storm of blades juggling her through the air for several seconds until she was unceremoniously dropped on her ass. Nora pushed her legs under her and tried to get up, only for her knees to buckle, Jack drawing his arm back for another strike before the buzzer sounded through the air.

"That's quite enough," Glynda announced, the two fighters slumping as Nora's Aura gauge flashed red, Jack's yellow. "Ms. Valkyrie, in the future, please be aware that leaping into the air to avoid an area-wide attack has its own pros and cons. Mr. Braxton, while your ability reset one of your own ribs in the middle of combat and continuing to fight is an… _admirable _trait," she said fishing for the right word, "please keep in mind that doing so could have drastic long-term consequences for your health."

"Really? Well gee-willikers, Professor Goodwitch, if that's the case, let me put that in a memo and entitle it 'Shit I Already Know'," the Faunus drawled as he nursed his side, the glow of Aura smothering the skin beneath his hand.

"I do not appreciate your tone," Glynda sighed as she adjusted her glasses.

" . . . Sorry," Jack sighed. "This busted rib is really bothering me, so I'm just going to go get it looked at," he said walking off.

"That's probably a good idea," Glynda conceded. While it _was _hard not to lash out at someone who constantly challenged her authority within a school environment, Ozpin had asked her _explicitly_ to show Jack a degree of lenience. As long as his verbal retaliation didn't take things too far.

Obviously, the hot chocolate addict knew something she did not, and whenever she tried to broach the subject, he would repeatedly tell her it was not his story to tell. Perhaps he wanted her to take a more active role in this particular case?

Either way, Jack's disposition was understandable, and his power would be necessary to preserve the future of Human and Faunuskind against the forces of darkness. So if she had to take a bit of lip in order to cultivate a valuable resource, then so be it.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After the match, Jack made his way over to the school infirmary, sending a message to his team not to wait up, and that they should get on with the day's homework without him. While there wasn't any segregation against who could and could _not _receive treatment, his presence at the front desk _did _make the receptionist pretty nervous, given his former team was _still _hospitalized after all the bones he'd broken.

Fortunately, the woman was quick to forward him to a doctor, less because of any racial bias, but more because by reputation alone he scared the _shit _out of her. Still nursing his side, Jack took the elevator to the second floor, his doctor-to-be waiting for him.

Like his mother, she was a Faunus of the feline variety, a pair of pink cat ears that became lighter at the tips sticking out atop a head of red-orange hair, which fell down her back past her waist. She had a light complexion, green eyes, and an hourglass figure that was accentuated by her dark purple dress shirt and black knee-length skirt. Despite her curve-hugging clothes, the doctor's coat over her shoulders, the glasses on her nose, and clipboard in her hands helped retain a professional air about her, preventing her from being objectified too-readily.

"Hello, Mr. Braxton," the Faunus woman greeted. "I'm Dr. Katt. Glynda told me you might be stopping by for an appointment."

"She isn't wrong about that," Jack returned. "So, how does this work?"

"If you'll follow me to my office, I can give you a once-over and render necessary treatment," she answered, guiding him down the hall. Along the way, numerous hospital staff who came out into the hall were quick to retreat back from whence they came, the sounds of deadbolts locking into place a moment later.

"So… Is my reputation _really _that bad around here, or what?" he asked as a middle-aged man quickly retreated, looking like he'd almost had a heart attack. The middle of a hospital was as good a place as any to have one he supposed.

"Yes and no…" the woman returned. "You _did _brutally hospitalize three students in your first week here. It's a miracle they didn't have to give up their goals of becoming Huntsmen."

"How _are _those three stooges by the way?" Jack idly asked.

"They're healing, but they won't be able to leave for another week or two," Dr. Katt answered back.

"Hm. Good to know," Jack hummed. He didn't really _care _whether they got out or not, but a timetable on when they may or may not try to get "revenge" would be appreciated. Just because they healed, doesn't mean those same bones couldn't be re-broken. And easier than before for that matter.

"If you'll take a seat, we can get this appointment underway," Dr. Katt replied as she opened a door with a golden nameplate reading **Dr. Katt **on the front. The office, like the lobby and the halls, was largely white with only a few bits of hardwood paneling to break apart the monotony. At the back of the room was a window, a cabinet for medical supplies on the left next to a collection of medical instruments, while on the right was a desk with a computer terminal, followed by a bench with an arch-shaped body scanner. "If you'll lay down here, we'll take a look at that rib."

With a nod, Jack took a seat on the bench, throwing his legs over the side before laying down and making himself comfortable. With a few keystrokes on her console, the arch-shaped scanner located above his head began to move down his body, shining a wide beam of light as it made a number of passes over his ribcage.

"Now, I'm to understand that Ms. Valkyrie's hit _re-_broke your rib from an existing fracture. Care to tell me what fractured it in the first place?" she asked as the scanner did its work.

"Nope."

"I see…" Dr. Katt sighed as the results came in. Prior to coming to Beacon, Jack had no _official _medical record to speak of, so the information they had there was _all _the information they had on him. "What the… This can't be right…" she said as she adjusted your glasses. "According to my scans, your fracture is already healing itself. How is that possib-" she was about to ask as she turned to Jack, whose hand was placed above his broken rib, a bright crimson glow emanating from beneath his palm. "What are you doing?!"

"What? Don't Hunters use Aura to heal their wounds faster all the time?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, but healing a single bone out of over two hundred that much in so little time requires an incredible amount of skill in Aura Manipulation. How do you have that level of control at _your _age?"

"Well, it's not like I spent that year in Skyrim with my dick in the snow," Jack said with a shrug as he continued to channel Aura into his rib, the real-time image on Dr. Katt's screen becoming more and more complete. "Let's just say I've gotten used to patching myself up over the years, and leave it at that."

"That isn't something you should be _proud _of, you know," Dr. Katt sighed, leaning back in her chair as the scanner's data was constantly updated. "I assume you've been doing this since the end of your match?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack replied.

"I see…" Dr. Katt said as she turned her eyes back to the screen, and then back to Jack, before turning them back to the screen. "Well… At the rate your rib is healing, if you keep doing that for another hour or so, I guess it'll be fixed up by tomorrow."

"That's good to hear. Can I go now?"

"Not yet. You might be healing your _bone_, but I want you to wear an ice patch on your side to help with the swelling. At your current level, there's only so much your Aura can heal on its own," she said going over to the medical cabinet while the scanner shut down. "I'd tell you to take it easy and not get into any fights, but you don't seem like the type that'd listen, so all I'll _ask _is that you at least _try _not to re-break that rib."

"I promise only to try."

" . . . I guess that's all I can expect from you," she sighed. "Do you want me to prescribe some painkillers, at least?"

"No need," Jack said as he made his way to the door. _"I'm used to the pain."_

_' . . . That's what I was afraid of...' _Dr. Katt sighed as the door closed.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Having told his team to not wait up for him, Jack wasn't really expecting anyone to _be_ waiting for him when he finished up at the infirmary. That's why it came as a bit of a shock when _Nora _of all people was in the lobby waiting for him when he got back. Apart from the bandages beneath parts of her uniform, all evidence of their fight was completely nonexistent.

"Heya, Jack!" the bubbly ginger greeted. "How was your doctor visit?"

"Fine. Fine," Jack replied as he idly pat his side. "Doctor gave me an ice pack and everything."

"Oh. That was cool of them," she replied as she followed him out the door. "Sooo… Sorry about the rib. Didn't think I hit you _that _hard."

"You didn't. Rib was broken _well _before I came here. You just happened to hit it dead-center."

"Oh…" Nora hummed, her expression saddening a bit. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's fine, so don't look so glum about it," Jack said ruffling her hair, the girl pouting as she swatted his hand away before straightening it back to what it once was. "That was a great fight. I had fun."

"Me too," Nora replied as she finished with her hair. "When you jumped through that ring of grenades, I was _really _surprised! It was like at the circus, only you weren't a lion, and the ring wasn't on fire!"

"That statement is only _mildly _insulting," Jack deadpanned.

"Er, whoops. My bad," Nora replied awkwardly as she scratched her head.

"Its fine. You didn't know," Jack returned. "Anyway, what shocked _me _about that fight was that you knew Artes. Didn't think another freshman here would _have _those under their belts. I'm kinda disappointed _Pyrrha _didn't use one. Though maybe she just didn't get the chance to use it," he said idly to himself.

"Yeah, well, me and Ren are just _full _of surprises," Nora replied with a toothy grin.

"So then Ren _does _have more going for him than those dinky little peashooters and kung-fu," Jack said crossing his arms.

"Well, he _is _what's basically a ninja," Nora said shrugging her shoulders. "He's bound to have a trick or twelve up his sleeves."

"Think I could get spoilers?"

"Nope! That'd be telling," Nora said making a zipping motion around her lips.

"Well, can't blame a guy for trying," Jack said with a shrug. "Sorry I ruined your outfit."

"Pshaw, it's fine," Nora waved it off. "I've got, like, a _dozen _of them back in my room."

"Yeah, seriously, why _is _it that everyone has so many copies of the same outfit?" Jack asked. "I mean, sure, I tend to stick with cargos and hoodies, but at least I try to mix up the colors a bit."

"Who knows?" Nora asked as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Eh, I guess it doesn't matter," Jack returned with a shrug. "Wonder who I'll fight tomorrow," he noted idly.

"If it's someone _good_, then it'll be _totally _epic!" Nora grinned.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**For those of you who have ever played a "Tales of" title, you'll recognize the term **_**Artes**_** right away. This crossover isn't **_**totally **_**random, it was largely inspired by the "Tales of RWBY" fanvideos on YouTube, courtesy of **IceninjaX77**. Originally it was going to come up when Jack started teaching Yang some of the tricks of the trade, but when my wandering mind imagined Nora performing a **_**Beast **_**attack, I couldn't wait that long, and decided to put it in.**

**The first "Tales of" title I ever played was **Tales of Symphonia**, and even now is still one of my favorite games; fun to play and incredibly story-driven with over 70 hours of content not counting sidequests and level-grinding. I've also played the likes of **Tales of Legendia**, **Tales of the Abyss**, and **Tales of Vesperia**, but for various reasons never got around to **_**finishing **_**them. That means my knowledge on the "Tales of" series is limited largely to that singular title which I've completed. I'm unsure if I'll use "Tales of" kingdoms and characters in-story outside of historical references (like Gol D. Roger out of **One Piece**), but if there's a technique, character, kingdom, or any aspect you **_**really **_**want included in the story and I'm familiar-enough with it, leave your comments in a Review and it might just make it into the main narrative.**

**P.S.  
Unlike the "Tales of RWBY" videos, not **_**everything **_**a member of the cast does will count as an Arte. Only **_**very **_**deliberate gathering &amp; releasing of Aura through a weapon or other physical medium.**

**P.S.S.  
Jack's attack towards the end was inspired by Inuyasha's "Blades of Blood" attack, only instead of Yoki (Demonic Energy), this variant is fueled by Aura, using his blood as a conduit. Aura and Yoki are in essence, the same thing just from a different source, though this is the only move from Inuyasha I INTEND to put in unless I have reason to include others.**


	18. Crouching Badger, Hidden Lotus

"Jack Braxton versus… Lie Ren," Glynda announced the following day.

" . . . Well alright then," Ren said with a shrug as he got out of his seat, hands in his pockets as he walked down.

" . . . Mr. Braxton, if I might ask, are you good to fight today?" Glynda asked as the Faunus stepped down.

"Don't worry. It was a clean break, and I fixed it up yesterday so I'm good as new," Jack said giving a thumbs-up before heading off to his stuff.

'_A broken rib isn't something you should be brushing off that easily,' _Glynda thought, her eyes on Jack's back as he slowly disappeared from sight. _'Jack Braxton…' _she thought to herself as she accessed his student profile.

**Name: Jack Braxton  
Race: Faunus  
Age: 18  
Height: 5'9" (1.75 meters)  
Weight: 175 lbs (79.37 kilos)  
Hair Color: White, Grey, and Black  
Eye Color: Jade (Primary), Amber (Secondary), Crimson (Tertiary)  
Complexion: Dark  
Blood Type: O Negative**

**Weapon(s): The Ripper  
Handedness: Right  
Semblance: [Unspecified]**

**Birthplace: Boreal Frontier (Atlas-registered citizen at birth)  
Combat Academy: NA**

'_The degree of ability you've shown… Someone of your ability would be known within the Hunter Union if you'd gone to a formal Combat Academy… And then there are the injuries you've accrued prior to enrolling,' _she thought as she cross-referenced his student profile with the results of his _mandatory_ physical. _'The number of broken bones and percentile of scar tissue is _far _from normal, leagues above what's expected of even the most _trying _of Combat Academies…' _she thought, frowning at the numbers shown. _'That just begs the question… What have you been doing up until now? What darkness have you peered into?' _she questioned as she'd thought back to all he'd done to his former team.

The lengths he'd gone through to break and utterly destroy them.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Jack and Ren stepped out of their respective tunnels a few minutes later, both combat ready. Their weapons either holstered at their sides or tucked away out of view. As the timer ran down, there wasn't any pre-match banter, just two warriors sizing one another up. That _Jack _was taking the time to size up an opponent instead of lazily readying himself for combat, showed that he was taking this fight seriously from the get-go.

When the timer hit zero, there wasn't any mad rush and a clash of blades in the middle. The two merely sized one another up for a few more moments, before they began strafing around one another, like hungry wolves in the face of their prey. When one broke away from the circle, even one foot out of place, the hands of the other would twitch, and the first party would go back to their route. This went on for another minute before the silence was broken.

"C'MON REN! KICK HIS ASS!" Nora shouted from the stands. "HE TALKED SMACK ABOUT MY _PANCAKES_!"

"Wow, she is _really _into this," Jack noted idly.

"Well, you _did _mock her 'pancakes'," Ren returned as he used air quotes.

" . . . Fair point," Jack conceded with a shrug of his shoulders, drawing his axe from his side in a flourish.

Ren whipped out his pistols in response, opening fire a moment later. Jack widened his stance in response, holding his axe before him with the flat of the blade before his face. Ren's many rounds splashed against the Faunus' body like a torrential downpour, and like an actual deluge, Jack made no indication he even felt it, his body still like a statue as he weathered the storm of rounds.

A couple minutes of sustained fire later and Ren's pistols both clicked empty. The Mistrali teen glanced at the scoreboard, his pride taking a hit at how Jack's Aura had barely dropped from the onslaught of machine pistol rounds. "If techniques like that one didn't take years to learn, I'd say it's almost cheating."

"Well, no offense, but those dinky little peashooters of yours don't have _nearly _enough stopping power against an armored target," Jack returned as he brushed himself off, a number of rounds clattering to the floor at his feet. "And hey, random question, but are you actually _under-_compensating for something or what?" he asked, his question so off-base that Ren lost his composure –and his footing- at that line of inquiry. "You are? Good to know," he said idly. "HEY NORA! YOU WERE RIGHT! REN _IS _UNDER-COMPENSATING FOR SOMETHING!"

"SEE? I TOLD YOU!" the ginger girl cried out.

"Mr. Braxton!" Glynda yelped. "That line of dialogue is _far _from appropriate in a school environment!"

"So was turning left and smacking whats-his-face with my dick, but you didn't penalize me for _that _either," the Faunus replied flippantly.

"Can we please get back to the fight?" Ren asked, the current line of dialogue making him _very _uncomfortable. That _Nora _of all people broached the topic made it really fucking weird.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Jack returned with a shrug. An eyebrow raised as Ren withdrew his pistols instead of reloading, before drawing out a silver-colored flask with an engraved lotus emblem on the front. "Hm? Isn't it a little early to be drinking?"

"Hey, it's five o'clock _somewhere_," Ren returned with a shrug before he began chugging it like it was his job, much to Glynda's shock. That shock was soon replaced with intrigue as Ren's pink Aura began to flare around him, turning a darker shade of purple and growing in intensity with each gulp. _***HS***_

_*Sniff*sniff* _"Damn, that shit's pretty strong," Jack noted as the flask fell away from Ren's hand, his hair gaining a purplish tint as the intensity of his Aura began to rise, the ground beginning to crack at his feet.

"BLUUUUUGH!"

"Uh… You okay there?" Jack asked as his opponent suddenly bolted to the edge of the stage and hurled over the side, Glynda crinkling her nose in disgust.

"Yeah… Just… Peachy…" Ren groaned before- "BLUUUUUGH!"

"I'll… give you a minute," Jack said, drumming his fingers as Ren blew chunks, Glynda rubbing the bridge of her nose off to the side. After a couple minutes, Ren finally DID stop, brushing his hair back before he turned to his opponent. " . . . You done?"

_***BAM***_

"Yea…" Ren slurred, his fist buried in Jack's gut. "I'm dun…" he said as Jack was blown off his feet. The only thing that stopped Ren from winning via ring-out was Jack's claws digging into the floor, stopping him inches from the edge. "C'mon Je… Ju… Jake…" Ren slurred as he raised his hands, slightly swaying from side to side. "Bring it ooooooon…"

"Normally I don't _enjoy _punching drunk people, but I think I'll make an exception this time around," Jack said as he got into a boxer's stance. The two stood across from one another, one swaying, the other not, before the two were off like gunshots.

Meeting in the middle, Jack's was the first strike, a corkscrew punch to the face that would've knocked a lesser man on his ass. Ren however, dodged effortlessly, drunkenly twirling around his opponent before sending a back kick between Jack's shoulder blades, the Faunus sent fumbling forward. Flipping off his hands and back onto his feet, Jack was on the defensive as Ren descended upon him like an angry tiger, fists, palms, and knife strikes raining down on him in unpredictable arcs, the blows whittling down Jack's Aura as he crossed his arms. Unable to retaliate, after a storm of chaotic strikes in the dozens, he finally found an opening, snapping his arms uncrossed before baring his fangs and diving forward. Ren rolled backwards from closing fangs, hands at his ankles forming a human wheel, a chunk of his shirt sleeve now missing.

Distance put between them, Jack drew his arm back, hand in a knife shape as he slashed it down, an arc of air pressure tearing across the ring and towards Ren. The inebriated teen exaggeratedly hopped to the side, standing on his tiptoes with his hands held straight up as the blade passed just in front of his nose, the air blade screaming across the stage before splashing against the barrier at the edge. Each swing of his arm sent like-blades at Ren, who in increasingly-exaggerated ways dodged the blades, sometimes looking like action poses, while others were like those of a rubber-bodied cartoon character.

It was after the sixth dodge that Jack rushed up, closing the distance between him and Ren before decking him over the head with his left fist; and for whatever reason, that one sound effect from **The Six Million Lien Man **sounded as Ren tumbled like a slinkie before getting back to his feet. The next moment Jack fisted Ren's hair before delivering a brutal knee strike to the nose, followed by a devastating side-kick to the stomach, the teen folding over the limb before he was sent tumbling away, bouncing like a ragdoll before drunkenly getting back to his feet, swaggering from side to side with his hands raised in a sloppy stance.

Not only was everyone shocked that Ren was still standing after one of Jack's punches to the brainpan, and the knee, _and_ getting practically folded in half by that kick, but the teen's Aura had barely gone down.

In fact based on the look on his face, the Mistrali teen had hardly _felt _it.

Of course, based on that _same_ look, he was completely shit-faced and wouldn't be feeling that until tomorrow morning.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" Ren suddenly cried as he held his stomach. "I'm gunna feel that domorrow…"

'_Hrmmmmm… I'd _head _of the Drunken Fist, but I thought practitioners of _this _level were just a myth,' _Jack thought as Ren swaggered from side to side, barely staying on his feet. _'I've heard of fighting _like _you're drunk, but getting flat-out shit-faced in the middle of a fight… That's a new one even for me.'_

"Hey Jake…" Ren slurred as he held his hands out in front of himself, palms towards one another. "Eat thishhhh…"

Between his hands, thick streams of Aura began to gather, bands of magenta and purple flowing and densifying into a brilliantly-glowing orb floating between his hands. What's more, a heady smell of alcohol began to permeate the air as the orb's luminescence continued to rise, until it turned a burning orange like a miniature sun. Within moments it grew from the size of a golf ball to a basketball, his hair and clothes whipping away from it.

"OGRE…" Ren bellowed as he slammed his right foot into the ground, raising his left straight into the air as he drew his arm back. "KILLEEEEEER!" he shouted as he threw it with the speed of a professional baseball player, the densified sphere of Aura screaming through the air towards his opponent, churning the stage in its passing.

"You're _really _going to blurt out the name of your attack as you do it?!" Jack asked incredulously as he dove to the side, Ren's _Ogre Killer _screaming past him and slamming against the stage's forcefield before detonating like every Grifball. Ever. Of all time.

A massive cloud of acrid black and orange smoke billowed up from the point of impact, the heady smell of alcohol washing over the room as the stage's near-transparent forcefield rippled like water from the force of the attack. In addition to the crater that almost took out the south edge of the stage, Ren's show of force would've been all the more impressive, had he not tripped over his own ankle and landed flat on his face a moment later.

"Hey drunkie, you dead yet?" Jack asked his opponent.

"Oooooogh… I _feel _like it," Ren groaned, no longer slurring as he forced himself to his feet.

"All things considered, if we hadn't burned through a third of our Aura up to this point, I would've said this all amounted to game of hot space potato," Jack said glancing sideways at the scoreboard, Ren's Aura reading near **67%, **while Jack's was at **68%**.

"_*Sigh* _This is such a hassle… but for some reason, you make me want to fight seriously," Ren said with a small grin as he dusted off his shirt, the tone around him shifting as he slowly undid the clasps of his tailcoat. The last clasp coming undone as Jack drummed his fingers on his axe handle, Ren's coat fell open revealing a lean, muscular frame covered by a set of mesh armor that clung to his body like a second skin, a jagged cross-shaped scar dominating his left pectoral visible, just not from the stands.

Eyes narrowing at one another, the two suddenly leapt backwards, Jack drawing his axe before slamming the head into the stage and assuming a fighter's stance, while Ren reached into the shoulder holsters his tailcoat concealed before drawing a _different _pair of pistols from his StormFlower.

Held in his left and right hands respectively were a revolver and semi-automatic pistol pair, both a metallic shade of black. The revolver featured silver flame-like accents behind the trigger, a yellow flame-like hammer, and yellow flame-like accents streaming backwards over the barrel like a muzzle flash and around the handle; dangling from the bottom was a blue mane-like tassel that gradated into green, a green bead synched above the end which gradated from white to gray and then black. The semi-automatic had more-conservative red flame-like designs ono only the _front _of the barrel, yellow flame-like designs running along the sides, the rear of the slide was yellow, and the handle had alternating bands of red-and-yellow flame-like accents; dangling from the handle was a more "feathery" looking tassel that gradated from red to black, a black bead with red-and-yellow flame-like accents in it synched over the end, which gradated from red to pink and then white.

As Ren's weapons gleamed under the stage lights, a cry of near-orgasmic bliss resounded from the crowd, but neither fighter paid it any mind, Ren's fingers on the triggers, while Jack popped out his claws and flexed his knuckles.

**Cue Katanagatari Volume 2 OST – Bahasa palsu Jazz'n Mix**

The tension around the two began to rise, everyone in the stands falling silent as the around the two rippled like a mirage, the Aura subconsciously leaking out of their bodies saturating the air. It grew so silent that the two's breathing could be heard clear as day, as could the slight shifting of dirt beneath their feet.

After what felt like an eternity, the two's standoff drew to a close, both teens closing their eyes and inhaling deeply through their noses, filling their lungs.

As they audibly exhaled, their eyes snapped open. Jack's had turned from amber to crimson, his pupil gaining a more-prominent slit-like shape. Ren's eyes of magenta turned a deep shade of purple, his pupils gaining a cross-slitted shape that touched the edges of his irises.

Jack was the first to move, shooting toward his opponent with clawed hands reared back. Ren responded by raising his weapons, flaming muzzle flashes spewing out of his weapons as red-hot bullets screamed through the air. Jack was out of the way in a blur, charred scraps of clothing and lochs of hair floating through the air in his wake. As ashes danced through the air, Ren performed a dynamic gun kata, shooting red-hot rounds in every direction as Jack circled him, multiple afterimages left in his wake, while Ren himself looked like a six-armed Asura.

After numerous circling motions around his prey like a hungry shark, Jack's foot dug into the ground, stopping himself before shooting straight at Ren from behind. Instead of rounding on his closing-in opponent and firing however, Ren raised his weapons to the ceiling, firing numerous rounds into the sky much to everyone's shock. Moments before Jack's hand could wrap around the back of his opponent's neck, red-hot rounds struck his hand and arm from above, the Faunus retreating as a tight cluster of rounds screamed through the space his head was once at.

"Ricocheting bullets off the ones you'd already embedded in the ceiling," Jack noted idly as he rubbed the scorch mark on the back of his hand. "I didn't think anyone in _this _generation had that kind of skill."

"I could say the same about you," Ren said as he whirled around and faced Jack, firing off a barrage of rounds all aimed at center mass. "I didn't think I'd meet another Six Styles practitioner here at Beacon, much less another freshman," the Mistrali teen mentioned with a small smirk on his face as Jack continued to dodge, his body a blur. "Tell me, how close to reaching that final, fabled technique are you?"

"Not even in the slightest," Jack replied with a smirk as he dropped his weights, a wall of air shattering in his wake as he kicked off, Ren's gun kata doled out at an even more unbelievable pace, the air itself beginning to smell like fire as the two danced around one another.

Suddenly, _three _of Jack rushed out of the Faunus cyclone, each image slashing through Ren, but passing through an afterimage instead. Two of the Jacks disappeared, Ren appearing behind the one that remained and firing through his back, that Jack too disappearing like an illusion. Another Jack rushed out and attacked his opponent, only to pass through an afterimage. After numerous strikes directed only at afterimages from both parties, Ren kicked off multiple times into the air, the stage lights gleaming off his weapons as he began to spin wildly. Now a tornado of dark green, black, gold, and pink, muzzle flashes began to be belched out, red-hot rounds actually _curving _through the air, pelting the ground below like a meteor shower, Jack's afterimages fading one after another until only the real remained. His claws gleaming, Jack began to slash wildly at the red-hot rounds that screamed toward him from all angles, his strikes managing to deflect some of the rounds, while others punched through his Aura and left scorch marks on his clothes and flesh.

Moments later and the tornado subsided, Ren's tailcoat billowing as he descended to the ground, eyes spinning in his head slightly as he stopped spinning. Jack however, wouldn't give him the time to rest, lunging forward with a powerful claw swipe. Ren's mesh armor was ripped to shreds, thin rents of blood spilling out of his chest as he backflipped away, his guns belching out flaming muzzle flashes as he fired at Jack, the Faunus taking the fight to his opponent as he rushed forward, weaving and bobbing around red-hot rounds before he was upon his opponent, Jack leapt into the air above his opponent, flipping forward with his leg extended before delivering a powerful heel-kick. Without a moment to spare, Ren crossed his guns above his head and blocked the kick, the stage at his feet exploding from the force of the attack and kicking up a massive cloud of dust. Jack uncrossed his arms, throwing his opponent back as he backpedaled through the dust, arms falling to his sides as heavy breaths passed his lips.

"Tell me, Jack," Ren said between breaths, trying to buy himself as much time as possible to catch his breath. "How'd you dodge all those rounds during your charge just then?"

"I didn't," Jack said from the other side of the dust cloud as he rose to full height. The cloud of dust settling revealed a number of bullet holes that had passed through his Aura, his clothing turning dark red from the numerous rounds that had punched holes in him. "I was willing to take those hits from the start, all so I could wear down your Aura a bit more," he said nudging his head towards the scoreboard, Ren's Aura at **42% **while Jack's had fallen to **45%**. "For a guy that can do all this," he said motioning to the ruined stage around them, "I'm curious as to how someone like _Cardin _can give you so much trouble when you're packing that kind of firepower," he then motioned to Ren's flame-patterned guns.

"Well… _*pant* _Using these _particular _firearms _*pant*_ takes a lot out of me," Ren confessed as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

"Hn… Makes sense," Jack panted out, shoulders slumped slightly as his muscles burned. "Both of us have close to half its Aura left, but your body's telling you a different story isn't it?"

"Yeah," Ren panted out. "And what about you?"

"If I fought any harder, I might kill you by accident, so one last epic clash is all I'm good for," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders. "What do you say? One last struggle to decide things?"

"Hm. Why not?" Ren hummed as he rose back and got into a gun kata form, his guns held sideways as he faced his opponent. Jack cracked his knuckles, popping his neck from side to side before lowering his stance, claws gleaming in the light.

A moment later they both moved.

Ren's guns were alight with fire as he moved forward, arcs of flame tearing through the air as he swung his arms. Jack in turn reared his arm back and gathered his claws into a single point before slashing his arm forward. Jack's single blue arc of pressurized air clashed with Ren's cross-slash of fire, the two colliding and violently exploding, the collision of the two's weapons of choice blasting the smoke away as they struggled against one another. Arcs of flame and wind tore through the air as the two clashed, their arms blurs of motion and color as they mercilessly slashed at one another, their gauges on the scoreboard slowly going down without halt.

As their Auras fell below the **30% **mark, spatters of blood began to scatter around them, cloth and flesh alike wrent under their mounting assault, the pristine white floor of the stage staining red amongst shattered stonework. The whole of the ground at their feet saturated with blood, Jack's left food slid backward, his stance busted wide open. Ren capitalized with a cross-slash, the right side of Jack's abdomen split open, a splash of blood staining the front of Ren's tailcoat and mesh armor. Jack's hands went to his side, squeezing the wound shut even as blood dribbled between his fingers. The glint that appeared in his eye caused Ren to backpedal away, only for his foot too to slip in a puddle of blood, his footing lost as Jack drew his right arm back before throwing it forward, a wide quintet of blood-colored arcs tearing through the air. Ren crossed his arms in front of himself to block, his sleeves sheared to shreds as deep gashes appeared on his forearms.

Left hand still squeezing at his wound, he drew his right hand back, his blood-covered hand glinting like armor as he rushed forward with a mighty yell. His footing slipping, Ren executed a sloppy cross-slash that streaked through the air, striking Jack in the face below his left eye. Squeezing his eye shut, Jack carried through with the strike, his bloodied fist aiming for Ren's head. Before it could connect however, Ren's form wavered, swaying through the air _around_ the strike like a paper silhouette, the strike flying wide over Ren's head. The raven-haired teen's hands then formed intricate weaving patterns in front of himself, his hands like streams of water before he delivered a powerful palm strike to Jack's chest through his broken guard.

The tempo of battle died in an instant, the sounds of combat fading into the background, the _***plip*plip*plip* **_of dripping blood dominating the air before- _***BTOOOM!* **_-the back of Jack's hoodie exploded away from him, exposing his bare back and launching him through the air. His feet skidding through the puddle of blood at his feet, making twin trails as he slid back, he came to a stop a few feet away from the edge of the stage. His knees shaking, his breath heavy, after several seconds Jack's legs gave out from underneath him, the Faunus falling flat on his face, a growing puddle of blood forming beneath him.

**End OST**

"The… The winner is Lie Ren!" Glynda announced as she called an end to the match, Ren's Aura at **25%** while Jack's was down to **14%**. Not a moment after she had called the match, Ren's legs gave out from underneath him too, landing face-first in a large puddle of blood, members of Team RWBY and Team JNPR panicking as they scrambled to get down to the stage, followed by the paramedics.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

It had been an hour since both Jack and Ren had been admitted to the infirmary. Normally, the Duels were meant to be _without _blood, the rare cases being when a Guard Breaker was applied that completely shattered an opponent's Aura-borne guard, or a strike continued on even after a person's Aura was completely depleted. However, this fight was far from bloodless, and completely unlike anything that was expected of either party from when the fight first started.

"Yang… Are they going to be alright?" Ruby asked with slumped shoulders, sitting across the door from the room that Jack and Ren had been placed in after coming out of surgery.

"Ruby, they're going to be _fine_," Yang said placing a hand on her sister's shoulder. "The doctors said without their Aura, the injuries would've been worse. They stitched up the big ones, and the smaller ones had already started healing by the time they hit the operating room."

"Jack is tough. He'll be just fine," Blake commented, before turning to the remaining member of her Team. "Weiss? Weiss, are you okay?" she asked shaking the girl's shoulder.

"Wha-What?" the heiress said snapping back to attention, her eyes focusing on the present as she turned her attention back to her Team. "I-I'm fine. Just… a bit surprised at seeing so much blood. Is all."

"I know what you mean," Jaune said slumping in his seat. "The last thing I expected was for Ren to match Jack blow-for-blow like that. And those moves… it was like something out of a Jade Chan movie."

"I'm surprised there's that much _blood _in a person's body," Nora said kicking her feet in her chair. However, while there _was _a smile on her face, it didn't reach all the way to her ears like it normally did, and her eyes weren't as bright as they normally were.

"Don't worry, Nora. Ren's going to be fine," Pyrrha said putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Hey, Ren went toe to toe with a Deathstalker. I _know _he'll be fine," Nora said, her smile broadening. "It's just… I didn't know he could fight like that."

"None of us did," Blake commented. Jack, through most of his fights, would completely overpower his opponent before beating them into submission like a berserker, taking his time depending on his personal dislike of the person in question. Ren on the other hand was far more surgical, strafing his enemy and probing their defenses before moving in for a single finishing blow that would make or break the match. Today's fight, it was completely unlike them both.

"Still… It looks like Jack has some competition for the Freshman Alpha Male," Yang said jokingly, running her fingers through her hair, waiting to get the green light to at least _visit_.

"Yeah. Who knew Ren had it in him?" Jaune asked, shoulders slumped a bit as he sunk into his seat. "Oh, I just remembered," he said turning to Ruby, trying to change the topic. "When Ren pulled out those flame-decorated guns, you were practically _drooling _and going on about some Shikizaki guy. Who were you talking about exactly?"

_*GASP* _"Blasphemer!" Ruby screamed as she jumped from her seat, pointing an accusatory figure at the blond. "Prepare to die, ignorant heathen!" she cried whipping out her scythe, the end of her barrel resting against his nose.

"WAAAAH! WHAT DID I DO?! WHAT DID I DO?!" Jaune cried holding his hands above his head in surrender.

"Well, to weapon nuts like Ruby, Kiki Shikizaki is like _God_," Yang said with a shrug of his shoulders. "You saying you don't even know about him is a big no-no in her book. Just like talking about his mom is to Jack. Or messing with my hair for _me _for that matter. I'm not sure what gets Blake angry, but I imagine spilling something on Weiss' clothes would get her pretty steamed."

"Hey!"

"Kiki Shiki-who-now?" the blond asked with a raised eyebrow, Ruby's eye twitching uncontrollably before she took a calming breath, collapsing her weapon and synching it back onto her back.

"Kiki Shikizaki was a famous soothsayer, swordsmith, and metallurgist who was born over two hundred years ago to the far east," Ruby said whipping out a pair of glasses and going into full-blown lecture mode, a blackboard with the disassembled component of a standard katana appearing behind her out of nowhere. "The blades he created were completely different from anything available at the time, some of which were complete anachronisms that wouldn't be created by anyone else for even a century after his death. Numbering one-thousand in total, the blades he created in his lifetime were the best in the entire _world_, and those that aren't lost still _are _some of the best blades the world-over. They say that whoever's armies possessed the most Shikizaki Blades would dominate the battlefield due to the sheer difference in quality. However, out of those one-thousand blades, nine hundred and eighty-eight of them were merely_ practice _blades for his final twelve creations, his ultimate works which became known as the Deviant Blades. The pinnacle of weaponsmithing!" she screamed with stars in her eyes.

"But what does this have to do with Ren's flame-shooting guns?" Jaune saw fit to ask, stating what was most likely obvious. "Didn't you say this Kiki guy was a _sword_smith?"

"The weapons that Ren used were likely copies of the original Entou Jyu, or "Flame Sword, Gun", Kiki's twelfth and final Deviant Blade," Ruby answered. Due to Jaune's still-confused look, she went on to elaborate. "I said before that Kiki Shikizaki's works were all anachronisms, things belonging to a period of time other than the then-present in which they originally existed. The reason for _that _is historians suspect the Shikizaki line all inherited the same type of Semblance; the ability to foresee future events. For this reason, it's commonly believed that Kiki Shikizaki would reverse-import forging techniques from the future to influence his works. At least, if his profession as a Soothsayer on top of a swordsmith, alchemist, metallurgist, and occultist had anything to say about it," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"_Ruby is _really _knowledgeable on this subject," _Weiss whispered to her blond teammate, a hint of respect evident in her tone. _"I can only imagine the frightening headway she'd make if she put this sort of energy into her _job_," _she said before the context of what Ruby said finally dawned on her. "Hold on! You're saying that Kiki Shikizaki could see into the _future_?"

"It's the only way he could've created the Entou Jyu a century before the advent of then-modern firearms," Ruby answered. "The Entou Jyu were classified as "automatic katana", swords capable of defeating all other forms of sword technique, because range had always had the advantage in weapon-to-weapon combat prior to the utilization of contained Dust-propelled rounds," she said wagging her finger at the heiress. "Ren's weapons on the other hand, like I said, are likely copies of the originals, and are thus, inherently powerful, but nowhere near that of the genuine article. I'm _still _trying to find out why he never ran out of ammo, since the revolver can only hold six shots, while the semi-automatic only holds eleven," she said adopting a thoughtful expression.

"And what does this have to do with us now?" Pyrrha asked.

"Because if I can get in touch with Ren's supplier, maybe I can get a Deviant Blade _copy,_" she muttered the last word quietly to herself, "of my very own!" she said returning to full volume, the blackboard behind her zipping away by some invisible hand, Weiss gawping back and forth, the others letting out nervous chuckles.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Meanwhile in the hospital room, the incessant _***Beep*Beep*Beep* **_of heart monitors echoed through the quiet room, its two occupants roused from their slumber one after the other. Their clothing had been removed and replaced with hospital gowns, most of their bodies covered in bandages, with extra padding over the more-severe injuries. Ren's arms were bandaged heavily, but other than the bruises that were bound to come from when he was shit-faced drunk, there weren't any serious injuries apart from that. Jack on the other hand had a body dominated by injuries making him look like a mummy, particularly around his right arm, abdomen, and the left side of his face around his eye.

Ren was the first to wake, sitting up even as his arms stung and his body ached. Magenta eyes adjusting to the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital room, he looked from side to side, Jack's silhouette visible beyond the curtain that separated them via the sun setting in the distance.

" . . . Jack… You awake?" Ren asked.

"I am _now_," Jack whined like a normal teenager roused from their slumber. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to ask if you were alright. That fight got _pretty _intense."

"I'm _talking _to you, aren't I? It means I'm not dead, and that's good-enough for _me_," Jack said as he forced himself into a sitting position. The bright crimson glow behind the curtain told Ren that Jack was empowering himself with his Semblance, the lack of a cry that he was forcing himself through the pain. "What about you? I didn't hurt Nora's little _Pankēki Bishounen_ too badly did I?"

"Why? You afraid she'll break your legs?"

_***Clap* **_"Nailed it."

"You don't have to worry about me," Ren said as he idly scratched at his chest. "Don't let what happened with that Deathstalker fool you. I'm _way _tougher than I've let on."

"With someone like _Jaune _as a leader, _someone _has to be the Man on your team," Jack noted idly as he scratched at his head.

"Heeey… Jaune isn't… _that _bad…" he drawled out, sounding _very _unconvincing.

" . . . He's worse, isn't he?" Jack asked flat-out.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Ren sighed as he rubbed his temples. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but every time Jaune gets his butt kicked during Goodwitch's class, it kinda stings at my pride a little."

"If it were _me_, it'd sting _all _of my pride."

"You're a better man than I to admit that."

"Yeah, well, I'm a Faunus. Your _Human _standards don't mean a _daaamn _thing."

He said that, but the sound of a grin on his face meant he said it good-naturedly.

"That you are," Ren chuckled, before flinching as his abdomen throbbed. "Guh, did you _really _have to kick me that hard?"

"You were shit-faced out of your mind. Anything less and you wouldn't have felt it."

"That's true," Ren said. Finding some of his personal effects on the nightstand beside him, he unscrewed the lid on his flask and held it above his mouth, nary a drop left to take the edge off. "It feels like _years _since I last used the Drunken Fist."

"That's good in its own way. I've _tried _Onigoroshi before. That stuff is _murder _on the liver. Hits you like-"

"Ground glass?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Their dialogue exchanged, the two moved back to the headrests of their respective beds, bunching their pillows behind their lumbar and making themselves more comfortable. After several minutes of silence, Ren was the first to break the silence.

"Jack."

"Yeah?"

"I want to… apologize," he stated. "For trying to take your eye out, I mean," the Mistrali teen elaborated.

"It's fine. You're far from the first," Jack waved it off. He could still _move _his eye, so it was still there, but they had to apply stitching to the split lid. If his Aura hadn't taken most of the attack, he'd have lost the eye for sure.

"Does it have something to do with the scars?" Ren asked. "The ones on your back?"

" . . . You're stepping into no-man's land," Jack said leveling a hard glare.

"I won't press for details," Ren replied holding his hands up. "But… It's going to come up eventually. You can only hide it from your team for so long before one of them catches a glimpse and they back you into a corner."

"Hey Ren, meet Shit Sherlock, first name No," the Faunus returned, looking at the ceiling for a few minutes before turning to ask- "How many people saw?"

"No one. It was a small hole, so it wasn't like anyone could tell what they _were _from that far out._"_

"Huh… Well… Thanks for not destroying ALL of my shirt," the Faunus replied.

"No problem," Ren replied simply. "So… Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm… not ready to open old wounds like that," the Faunus sighed. "Not to you at least. We're still strangers."

"Hmmm… Well, if even _half _of my suspicions are correct, I can understand why you're so strong. And why you hold most of us Humans in contempt like you do."

"I don't hold _all _Humans in contempt. Just the racist ones, and the evil ones, and the _indifferent _ones. Those that don't go one way or the other, I don't really _care _for, one way or the other," Jack said rolling his hand. "Guys like Cardin, his flunkies, and my old team. Those guys can _literally _go off and die in a barn fire. Guys like you, Team Juniper, and Team Ruby… _You _guys I genuinely like. It makes me glad I came here."

"If you don't mind me asking… Why did _you _decide to come to Beacon?" Ren asked. It wasn't just because of his clan's blood-soaked history, but Ren just couldn't imagine Jack wanting to become a Huntsman for the same noble reasons as someone such as… someone like Ruby.

" . . . Wanna go raid the infirmary storeroom for some medical morphine?" Jack said changing the subject as he motioned to the IV drips by their beds. Both of which were now empty. Either they were given a small dosage, or their bodies burned through it _really _fast.

" . . . Sure. Why not," the magenta-streaked teen said with a shrug of his shoulders, a doctor coming into the room a moment later.

"Ah, you're awake, boys," the man greeted. "And I see you're able to sit up. I don't recommend that, so would you mind laying back down so I can check your stitches? Make sure they're holding?

" . . . GO!" Jack shouted, he and Ren springing from their beds and rushing the shocked doctor.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**In a recent Review, I've been told that having out-of-fight conversations mid-scene was messing with the flow of the story. As such, whenever such an occurrence… occurs, I will place that part of the narrative separate from the main story, labeled with a **_***HS* **_**prompt. Because it literally IS part of the narrative, it exist outside the boundaries of a _Deleted _Scene, which like I said before may or may not be part of the story's canon.  
**

**So, here's what happened off-scene after Ren chugged that flask of sake.**

***HIDDEN SCENE***

"**Ugh, what is that **_**smell**_**," Ruby groaned as she held her nose, Ren's now-purple Aura flaring around him like fire. Heck, even his **_**hair **_**was turning purple. Or rather, the **_**pink **_**loch of hair was turning purple, while his raven lochs gained a deep purple sheen.**

"**It smells like… **_***sniff*sniff* **_**alcohol," Yang noted idly as she smelled the air. That was just how strong the smell was.**

"**Why in the world is he drinking in the middle of a fight?" Weiss asked, one part appalled, another intrigued by the cosmetic changes.**

" **. . . He's mixing that alcohol into his Aura, isn't he?" Pyrrha noted as she pieced the signs together. **

"**That still doesn't explain the smell," Blake groaned, holding her nose much like Ruby. However, being a Faunus, the smell hit her like a **_**freight train**_**!**

"**Oh, Ren just chugged a whole flask of Onigoroshi, the most potent sake from Mistral," Nora explained without missing a beat.**

"**Ogre Killer?" Yang asked with a raised brow. "Isn't that stuff, like, 190 proof? How's he even still **_**alive**_**?"**

"**Oh, he mixed it into his Aura **_**before**_** it could hit his liver like ground glass," Nora replied with a shrug. "Still, he's doing better than the **_**last **_**time he did this-"**

"**BLUUUUUGH!"**

"**Never mind," Nora reiterated.**

"**Um… Is he going to be okay?" Jaune asked as Ren continued to blow chunks over the side of the stage.**

"**Ren? Oh, he'll be **_**fine**_**. It's **_**Jack **_**who you should be worrying about," Nora said with a grin, eyebrows raised as they turned their eyes back to the sage, Ren having **_**finally **_**stopped hurling.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**And now back to the Author's Notes.**

**To start this off, "Boreal" is the name of the continent on the northern part of Remnant, where Atlas is located. The continent on the northwest is "Skyrim", Vytal is the middle-continent same as canon, the dragon-shaped continent to the east is "Orient", and the fish-shaped continent to the southeast is "Menagerie" same as canon. Not ALL of the continents were explicitly named when this idea was in the developmental stages, hence some of the names are different. While the Kingdom and the Capital of Vale are the same, that is not the case for the other Kingdoms, though those names will be specified as they become necessary.**

**On note of Ren's abilities, I've expanded upon them a bit, drawing from a number of sources to help flush out his character. Canonically, Ren isn't a man of many words (until the 3****rd**** Volume where his voice actor changes from Monty Oum to his brother Neath Oum). While Nora's little downward-spiral-episode in Volume 3, Chapter 1: "Round One" shed SOME light onto their backgrounds, when RWBY was STARTING, I had a completely different idea about what their backgrounds were like, thus, there WILL be a deviation from the canon in regards to Nora &amp; Ren's backstory, as I had already come with preconceptions prior to major details being made known in the canon.**

**As part of a Disclaimer, I should probably mention that the Suiken/Drunken fist drew its largest inspiration from Chuu of Yuyu Hakusho, and that the Entou Jyu/Flame Sword Gun were inspired by Emonzaemon of Katanagatari. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you'll leave me lots of Reviews.**

**P.S.  
In case it wasn't obvious enough, Jack's little nickname for Ren, "**_Pankēki Bishounen_**", literally means "**_Pancake Prettyboy_**", because by anime standards he'd be the "pretty boy-type", and he makes Nora pancakes.**


	19. Honey Rose

"Ruby Rose versus… Jack Braxton," Glynda announced the next day.

"Jack!" Ruby said standing on her bleacher and dramatically pointing a finger at her opponent-to-be. "I might be your leader, and I might be three years younger than you, but don't hesitate when you fight me!"

"As long as _you _don't hold back, I'll return the favor," Jack said lazily as he idly scratched the left side of his face.

Ren's attack didn't hit deep, due to Aura, but the vertical cut had still split open his face from just above his left eyebrow, through the eyelid, and down the side of his face stopping flat just beneath his lips. The horizontal one ran almost completely across the left side of his face under his eye, stopping near his nose and his side-ear. As such, the left side of his face was dominated by bandages, with a large amount of gauze covering the right side of his abdoment where a much-deeper cross-slash had almost split him open.

If it weren't for his Aura, and his body's incredible propensity for self-recovery, Dr. Katt wouldn't have even let him _into _fourth block, much less out of a hospital bed. Due to the nature of his Semblance, _because _the injuries were as deep as they were, his body's healing capabilities accelerated proportionally to the extent of the damage. Because of that, the bandages on his face would be able to come off in around a week once the cross-shaped split healed. As for the one across his abdomen, because he had the control necessary to heal injuries more-precisely with his Aura than the typical all-around approach, the down-time for _that _wound was marginally less concrete.

Most students would be asked _not _to participate in anything too strenuous, but Jack had allayed the staff's concerns by saying he'd step down if he felt like his injuries were being aggravated.

"Well... I might hold back a _little_," Ruby said holding her index finger and thumb a couple inches apart, dashing off in a flurry of rose petals a moment later.

"Didn't even give me the chance to _argue_," Jack chuckled as he rose from his seat.

"Jack," Yang said grabbing his sleeve. "I want you to promise me something."

"Depends on what it is."

"Don't... Don't hurt Ruby _too _badly, alright?" she asked with a bit of apprehension.

"Don't worry, Yang, I'm not going to dismember her or anything," Jack said off-handedly. "I save _that _treatment for in case someone like _them _talks smack about my primary birth-giver," he said jabbing a thumb over his shoulder towards Team CRDL, the lot of them shivering at the threat of dismemberment.

He'd _do _it. He really would.

" . . . Alright," Yang said letting go. "And hey, just because she's my sister, doesn't mean I'm not rooting for you too. Can't have Ruby getting a big head if she beats the guy that stomped the Invincible Girl," she added with a grin.

"Heheh, I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Jack said as he walked off to change.

"And don't let yourself get _mutilated _again!" Yang shouted out as an after-thought.

"Yes, _mom_," Jack drawled as he playfully rolled his eyes.

"Oh, a mama's boy, huh? I'll be your mommy," she said sending him a flirtatious wink.

"Only if you call me _daddy_," Jack said with a wide grin, returning the wink with equal vigor.

_**'**__**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-' **_Weiss screamed inside her head.

"Get a room, you two," Blake sighed from behind her book.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Nora whooped out. "If you're going to have _sex_, make sure you put a _sock _on the door!"

"Nora," Ren deadpanned.

"That way, people will know that Yang's-" _*GAAAAA-_

"Nora!" he said a little more forcefully.

_-AAAAASP*_ "-tasting Jack's spotted dick, buttering his crumpets, banging his mash, climbing his apples and pears, spreading his mar-mite, ministering his silly-walk, vinegaring his chips-"

"NORA!" Ren shouted out as everyone around them continued to grow more and more red-faced.

Even Professor _Goodwitch _was looking hot-and-bothered.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Mr. Braxton, if I might ask, are you okay to fight today?" Glynda asked once Jack made his way to the stage. She needed _some _form of conversation to take her mind off of what Ms. Valkyrie had said only minutes prior, and she was willing to take anything she could get.

She was just thankful Ms. Rose had vacated the room before the ginger-haired teen had fired off that volley of sexual innuendo. Huntress-in-Training or not, _no _fifteen-year-old girl should ever be subjected to _that _kind of dialogue at such an impressionable age.

"It's fine. I went foraging in the Emerald Forest this morning for some Baron Leeches and got my blood levels back up," Jack waved off as he idly scratched the left side of his face. He seemed _really _nonplussed about what Nora had said minutes prior.

"You can _eat_ those things?!" Glynda yelped in shock. She may, or _may not_, have had a potentially-traumatizing experience in her youth with said variety of leech.

"Yeah. They're a bit gamey and they go down like stinky tofu, but their enzymes are _really _good for wound-healing," Jack said with a shrug, Glynda turning only the _slightest _bit green at imagining someone _eating _Baron Leeches. "For some reason, they make a _really_ good spread on toast if you mince them up and mix them with strawberry jam and orange juice," he then noted idly. "And a pinch of salt to overwhelm the taste of rotting flesh, of course."

"Urp!" Glyna almost hurled. Baron Leeches started out at the size of lemons, but when engorged on blood they could quickly grow to the size of a person's head if not bigger.

"Of course there were the rubbery bits that stayed in my teeth, and it took, like, twenty minutes to floss all the gunk out."

"_Please stop," _Glynda pleaded quietly. There weren't many things that could upset her with all her years as a Huntress under her belt, but going into such graphic detail over things that normal people did _not _eat was one of them_. _She idly wondered if he'd been taking notes from Port when it came to making stories needlessly graphic. Like the time he supposedly wrestled a King Taijitu to the ground without his shirt on after covering himself in Turkish oil.

For whatever reason.

"When half a dozen of them jumped me at once, I _did _get a little freaked out, but I managed to splash salt on them before they could sink their many sharp teeth into me."

"Yes. I get it. You're good to fight," Glynda said trying to put an end to that conversation.

"Thanks for understanding," Jack said with a smile. "If you ever want some minced Baron Leech, I've got a Tupperware of them back in my room."

"No… thank you…" Glynda said trying to keep her lunch down. "I'm good."

"Hm. Okay then," Jack said with a shrug. "Just give me a text if you change your mind."

"Right…" Glynda replied, eye twitching as she reeled her composure back in, Ruby Rose walking onto the stage with her Crescent Rose in tow.

"Hey Jack," Ruby greeted as she pulled her weapon from behind her. "Are you good to fight? Your left eye's still bandaged up."

"Like I told Goodwitch, I got some Baron Leeches this morning and got my red cell count up," Jack returned. "I would've gone for _Flesh-Eating _Leeches, but they weren't in season, and even if they were, it was a _really _long walk to their feasting grounds."

"Ugh, is _that _what you were eating this morning?" Ruby retched as she pinched her nose. "It smelled like dirty socks and Yang's armpit sweat."

"How do you even _know_ what Yang's armpit sweat smells like?" Jack asked, Glynda trying to keep her composure off to the side.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"She made you sniff her pits didn't she?"

"That was _one time_! And I lost a bet!" Ruby cried red-faced.

" . . . It must be really nice. Having a sister you can make those kind of memories with," Jack said with a smile on his face.

"Yeah… I guess sometimes I take what I have for granted," Ruby replied, a soft smile on her face. After noticing Yang's sudden fascination with her brother/sister moments with Jack, she squeezed the blond for details and had learned that Jack _used _to have a little sister, and that was why he had taken to her the way he had.

"Yeah, well, a full belly and warm clothes will do that to a person," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Back to the fight here," Ruby said as she looked at the countdown timer. "Are you sure you're good to fight? You're still injured, and your left eye's covered up."

"Is my sight the issue for you?" Jack asked, Ruby nodding her head slightly as the timer wound down. "Alright then," Jack shrugged as the timer hit zero.

With a flick of his wrists and ankles, Jack's weights fell away, the Faunus crouching before leaping straight upward. Turning his body parallel to the ceiling, his fists lashed out, punching out half the lighting fixtures in a flurry of blows. Shards of glass rained down around him as he descended, landing in a crouch, the room darkened by half.

"There… Now we're _both _in the dark," Jack said as his jade eye flickered to amber, glinting in the darkness as shadows wrapped around his face.

"Alright… That works… I guess…" Ruby said as she squinted her eyes, adjusting them to the light as best she could.

" . . . No, wait, that was just stupid," Jack admitted lazily after a couple seconds. "One Faunus eye in the dark is more than two of a Human's, so this isn't _really_ fair," he said scratching his head. "Oh, I know how to fix this," he said as he began digging into his pockets. After a few seconds, he drew out a long strip of dark green cloth, which he proceeded to wrap around his eyes and tie in a knot at the back of his head. "There. Now we're even."

"Are you… _mocking _me?" Ruby asked as her eyes began to adjust to the low light.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . I'm sorry, I spaced out. What?"

"Grr," Ruby growled as she unfurled her scythe, holding it out behind her and sending herself off with a _***BANG***_, her clothes rippling as she flew through the air.

**Cue One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 OST – BATTLE AT THE SPEED OF SOUND**

Her scythe blade screaming behind her, Ruby tensed her core for a powerful slash, her blindfolded opponent widening his stance and bending forward at the waist, forming a right angle as her blade passed harmlessly over him. Her boots scraping against the ground as she passed him, another gunshot sent her careening back towards her opponent, this time aiming the flat of the blade at his derriere. Like before, Jack dodged, curling into a ball and backflipping over her attack with his arms out. As he passed over her, his feet found her back between her shoulder blades and kicked off, the girl fumbling a few steps before stabbing her scythe into the ground and righting herself. Across from her, her opponent was crouched on the balls of his feet, elbows on his knees as he faced away from her.

Even though he was facing away from her, she could still tell he was spacing out, and that irked her a bit. Placing the end of her Crescent Rose on the ground, she pulled the trigger, launching her into the air. The bottom of her weapon's shaft unfolding, she began to spin forward like a red-and-black buzzsaw, the sickle-shaped blade screaming towards the ground. Once again Jack dodged, spinning on one heel to avoid the blade, which bit into the ground a few inches from his toes. Leaping forward, the Faunus used her head as a vault like a game of leapfrog, bounding over her and causing her to fumble.

Her hands momentarily left her weapon to catch herself, the girl spinning her legs and twirling her way back onto her feet, snatching her weapon from the ground in the process. Her scythe returning to its original position, the girl pointed the barrel and shot off with another _***BANG***_, now running the perimeter of the stage. Another _***BANG* **_accelerated her even further, and as her heart began pumping in her ears, rose petals began to stream through the air behind her, staining the air bright red as she circled her opponent with ever greater speed.

In the time she'd been training with Jack in Instantaneous Movement, she'd learned that even the _smallest _shift of her body weight carried a massive effect at-speed. While before she could only "Ruby Rush" _–as Yang liked to call it- _in a single direction, she could now make small deviations from that path thanks to her new conditioning routine. Her turning radius was incredibly wide, and thus very poor, but it was enough for her to turn the edge of the stage into a red-and-black banner as she circled around her opponent.

Through it all however, Jack remained dead-center at the stage, looking like he was spacing out behind his blindfold. Her _very _slightly red-tinted eyebrows twitching at her opponent's lazy stance, Ruby decided to test something she'd been wanting to for a while that could give her the high ground.

Leaning her body to the left, her feet began to go right, and as though she were defying gravity, much to the audience's shock, Ruby was actually _running _on the forcefield that prevented fast-moving objects from flying out-of-bounds. Circular "pings" colored a whitish-blue were left in the wake of each footfall, and little by little the perpendicularly-running girl found herself rising higher and higher above the stage.

Centripetal force, the force that makes a body in motion follow a curved path, combined with _centrifugal _force, the force attempting to pull a body _away _from its center of rotation, had allowed Ruby to overcome the downward pull of gravity. To anyone who didn't know about the forcefield, the red-cloaked girl may as well have been walking on air.

A sense of unbounded exhilaration coursing through her at the sense of freedom walking through the skies granted her, Ruby aimed upward and to the left, now possessing the high ground. Firing an opening volley from above, Jack's movements were markedly less lazy than before, wisps of air trailing behind his body as he dodged sniper rounds from the high ground, the afterimages the red-clad girl left behind making it look like the Faunus was avoiding fire from an entire _squad _of snipers.

At first, firing at such a high angle while running was taxing on Ruby, especially by the wind whipping her hair around, but as she got used to the sensation, her bolt and trigger-pulling drew closer to one another, the deluge of high-speed rounds increasing in ferocity. The stage floor was beginning to look like Swiss cheese, and any rounds her opponent couldn't dodge he blocked, flares of bright-red Aura flashing off of his palms as he warded off the shots.

Her weapon clicking empty, Ruby quickly turned to the side and braked with one foot out, slowing to a speed in mid-air. Before her speed could fall below the active threshold of the forcefield, Ruby gathered her Aura into her legs before shooting herself off at Jack like a cannonball. Rose petals flaring behind her as she closed the distance, the girl began to spin in an axis, and like a bullet out of rifling, her high-speed body slam attack gained incredible stability, her aim right on the mark as she aimed for dead center.

Unfortunately, her speed was not fast enough, her opponent leaping and doing a mid-air split as she sailed below him, her bullet-like body scraping up a gouge in the ground. Her Aura soaked up a good portion of the damage, and the durable material of her cloak absorbed the rest, but between that and the near-constant use of her Semblance for around three minutes straight, her Aura had taken a significant dip, while Jack's loss of Aura was _less_-than-significant.

Ejecting her spent clip and slotting in a new one in her weapon's freshly-modded magwell like clockwork, she kicked her spent magazine with the tip of her boot, the empty block of metal sailing towards the back of her opponent's head. Rushing at him to get a point-blank shot the moment he dodged or slapped her magazine aside, instead of either of those, Jack went for a third option, slapping the magazine back where it came. The flat of the magazine bopped her on the nose with a _***WHAK***_, her hands dropping her rifle as they instinctively

went to her face, her weapon getting caught up in her ankles, causing her to trip and tumble right past her opponent.

**End OST**

"Owowowowow…" Ruby groaned as she held her nose. Her Aura prevented her from getting a nosebleed, but the end of her nose was still throbbing painfully.

"Hey Ruby… You okay over there?" Jack asked as he stared off into space, the sight of that blindfold over his good eye causing ire to rise up in Ruby's chest. Snatching up her weapon from her feet, she rose to full height, glowering as her eyebrow twitched angrily.

"Come on, Jack! Take this fight a little more seriously!" Ruby growled, pointing an accusing finger at him like a certain ace attorney. "I know you've got three years on me, but it's like you're not even _trying_!" she raged. Sure, her uncle Qrow _did _dismiss her from time to time during training, but at least _he _had the courtesy to look her in the eye. "I want you to take that blindfold off and fight me seriously!"

" . . . If that's what you really want, I'll oblige you," Jack said as he pulled the bandanna from his eye, cracking his neck. "However, I'll be fighting you a little more… _indirectly _then you might like," he said as the tone around him began to shift, his amber eye glinting in the low light. "Let's test your mettle!" he suddenly bellowed as his amber eye turned red. "SHOW ME WHAT THE FUTURE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD IS MADE OF!"

That was how highly he regarded her, Ruby idly thought, and in a way it was flattering.

Of course… those thoughts would soon vacate her mind entirely.

**Cue Toriko OST – Zebra!**

Ruby audibly gulped as the hairs on her body suddenly stood on end, a shiver running up her spine at the flame-like Aura wafting off Jack's body, lighting up the air before changed to the consistency of running paint. The air behind him stained dark red, his bones creaking as his grip whitened his knuckles, veins visibly bulking across his face and neck. The air around him was no longer warm and inviting like the hug of an older sibling. Instead it was cold… and heavy… like a heavy fog blown in on the winds of despair.

"**HRRRAAAAAAH…!"**

The bellow that left Jack's lips caused goosebumps to run across her skin, the girl involuntarily stepping back as the air became thick and oppressing. Jack's stance began to widen, his center of gravity lowering as though a massive weight were bearing down on him, arms drawn back at his sides as the ground at his feet began to crack.

Pieces of the floor began to break free under Jack's spiritual pressure, clattering about in a room so silent you could hear a pin drop. The stream of Aura widening, a dark shadow began to spill out of his body, moving upward. Shaking like a leaf in the wind at the ominous setting Jack's figure cut in the half-lit room, Ruby's silver eyes grew wide, trembling as her neck craned upwards.

Veiled in the shadows that loomed above her was a monster more terrifying than any Grimm she had faced before. Like the monster in the closet that plagued her as a child, its identity was indiscernible, its presence… undeniable. Its very existence weighed down upon her, pressing down on her shoulders, Crescent Rose shaking in trembling hands as her jaw quivered.

As the towering darkness seemed to smother the light around it, shapes began to take form. Shoulders, broad and intimidating. Muscles, shifting like rivers of molten iron. Jagged spines, that could rip flesh asunder. What terrified her the most, though, were the eyes.

There were four of them, glinting brightly in the darkness. If she weren't so terrified, and she were Weiss, she would've compared them to the finest rubies the world-over. Instead they were portals, and what lay beyond them terrified her beyond the capacity for rational thought.

Then… came the fangs… Countless teeth, glistening and sharp, each one able to snap a femur between the embrace of its fellows. A warm breath washed over her face as the maw widened, and at that very moment she felt like a meal on a plate. Every cell in her body screamed at her to run, run, and _keep _running without end. To the ends of _Remnant _if she had to! But no matter how much she wanted to flee, her legs would not move, her knees knocking together and her grip on reality slowly slipping away.

Synapses firing out of her brain like a mini-gun, heart pounding against her rib cage like a jackhammer, her pulse beating in her ears like a drum, in the face of an inescapable enemy, she did the only thing that prey in her position _could _do.

She fought.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Ruby cried as she drew up her sniper rifle, firing a shot at its heart, the slug passing through it. What relief would've come turned to despair as its body rippled like water, flowing _around _her bullet. Clenching her teeth, she drew back the slide and fired again.

_***BANG***_

And again.

_***BANG***_

And again!

_***BANG***_

AND AGAIN!

_***BANG***_

The young woman, still somewhat naïve to the ways of the world, let out a blood-curdling cry as she continued to fire at the beast that plagued her every notion of cognitive thought. No longer were her rounds aimed at its heart. Instead, her barrel swayed every _which _way, bullets passing through an intangible creature she could never hope to overcome with conventional arms. Voices cried out to her from the stands, trying to ground her back in reality, but within her own terror-filled world, those words fell on deaf ears._***HS***_

After a solid minute of gunfire, Ruby's replacement magazine ran empty, the _***click-click* **_of the Crescent Rose's trigger causing a sense of dread to wash over her.

Ejecting the spent mag in jerky motions, shaking hands fumbled with her only remaining magazine. After what felt like an eternity, the weight pressing down on her growing more and more unbearable with each passing second, she was finally able to wrap her fingers around her last ammunition block of hope from despair. When she moved to reload it however, she made the mistake of looking the towering shadow in the eyes, hands trembling and the corners of her magazine making _***clickity*clack* **_noises against the sides of her magwell.

The magazine falling out of her hands, body trembling as the shadow looming above her slouched forward, Ruby's legs gave out from underneath her and she fell to her knees. Eyes shaking inside her skull, lips quivering and tears trickling out the corners of her eyes, Ruby felt completely helpless under the pressure bearing down on her. A few seconds later and she finally clocked out, falling backwards, the buzzer sounding moments later.

**End OST**

"Ruby!" Yang cried out as she leapt over the banister. "Ruby, speak to me!" she said running onto the stage and pulling her sister into a motherly embrace.

_***GROWRRRRRRR***_

A deep rumbling echoing through the silent room, Yang's eyes snapped open and a surge of adrenaline flooded her veins. Her Ember Celica cocked back out of instinct, her eyes widened in shock as she realized who she was just about to attack. Breathing out to calm her nerves now that the fight was well and over, she saw that as Jack's hand went to his rumbling stomach, the ominous shadow hovering above him mimicked the motion, the latter fading away and the pressure it exuded vanishing.

"Dammit…" the Faunus cursed as his eye flickered back to jade, shaking his head to clear out the mist around his mind. "I went too far again… didn't I?"

"Yeah… You kinda did," Yang eventually replied. "You… You okay there?" she asked. Despite what he had done however, the blond couldn't bring herself to _blame _Jack for scaring Ruby senseless. The girl _had _asked for Jack to give her his best shot. She just hadn't expected something so… _terrifying_.

"Yeah… Fine… Just a little exhausted is all…" Jack panted as he turned around and walked away.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Oooooogh…"

"Ruby, you're awake!"

"Urk, Yang!" Ruby squawked as her sister smothered her in a crushing bear hug. "Where am I?"

"Back in our room," Weiss answered.

"What… What happened?" Ruby asked as she sat up from her bed.

"Jack scared the living daylights out of you," Blake summarized.

"He… He did…?" Ruby asked as she rubbed her head.

"It's probably best if you _don't _try to remember it," Weiss interjected. "Whatever Jack did… it was evil… _Pure _evil."

"There's no such _thing _as 'pure evil'," Blake bit out.

"Well that technique certainly wasn't _Human_," Weiss spat, Blake's hands gripping her book with a knuckle-whitening grip.

"Where _is _Jack?" Ruby asked looking around, not seeing him present.

"He… thought you wouldn't want him here when you woke up," Yang answered. "On account of what he did to you, I mean."

"At least he had _that _much sense," Weiss huffed. "He'd be the _last _person I'd want to see if he did something like _that _to me," she said crossing her arms.

"No one asked you," Blake spat, sparks dancing between the two as they leveled glares at one another.

"Why… Why would he _think_ that?" Ruby asked, sounding genuinely hurt.

"He probably doesn't want to scare you anymore than he already has," Yang admitted, her stomach twisting in knots at the hurt look that came over Ruby's face.

" . . . Well _that's _dumb," Ruby pouted, much to their surprise. "Just because he scared me, doesn't mean I'm scared of _him_. He just… caught me by surprise is all," she said bashfully. She would never admit it to anyone, but she was sure if she'd gone for that extra milk at lunch, she'd have wet herself back there.

She'd never been more scared of anything in her life then at that very moment back there.

Compared to that, everything else was _easy_.

"Awwww, look at youuuu~" Yang cooed as she suddenly squeezed her younger sibling, causing her to squawk and flail. "Taking on the Boogeyman on steroids and brushing it off like a champ. I'm so proud of you!"

"_Pleash schtop…"_ Ruby groaned from her sister's ample bosom.

"Ruby, are you _sure _approaching that… _Faunus_, is a good idea?" she asked. If she let 'thing' or 'monster' out instead, it would've only _upset _the young girl who had been insistent on making Jack a part of their team.

"Yeah," Ruby said throwing her legs over the side of the bed. "Jack needs to know that he didn't do a bad thing today. And that I still love him like the big brother I never had," she said with a smile on her face.

"Jack's really grown on you, hasn't he?" Blake asked.

"Yep," Ruby replied with a toothy grin.

"Well, go _get _'im," Yang said clapping a hand on Ruby's back. "I saw him out by the cliffs. If you hurry, you can still catch him."

"Okay!" Ruby said with a grin, bolting out the door, a trail of flower petals in her wake.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_*Siiiiiigh* _"Dammit… I really messed up today, didn't I?" Jack asked as he looked at the clouds, knowing deep down he'd pushed Ruby's resolve too hard. All he'd wanted was to see how much pressure Ruby could handle, whether or not she'd crack. If she'd held up, he would've fought her a little more seriously, but getting into that mindset… everything became instinctual.

At the moment he was laying on his back at Beacon Cliff, well away from the school and any unwanted foot traffic. And certainly not on top of any of the catapults in case of an accidental discharge. According to school rumors, there _were _previous cases of unarmed and unequipped students getting caught unawares by an accidental catapult discharge and getting thrown into the Emerald Forest. If the landing didn't kill them, the Grimm that they couldn't fight without tools quickly overwhelmed them.

But of course, such occurrences weren't made public, and families of Hunters-to-be didn't exactly go around advertising how their kin got killed because they laid around on their asses where they shouldn't have been.

_***snap***_

"For the record, I felt you coming a _while _ago," Jack said to the figure that had snapped a twig underfoot. "What's on your mind, Pyrrha?" he asked as the formerly-Invincible Girl stepped out of the woods a few yards away.

Let's just say the media had a field day after Pyrrha's devastating loss, and leave it at that.

"I… was curious about something, and felt it better to ask you in person," the redhead stated as she brushed some of the leaves off her skirt.

"I see," Jack hummed. "What about?"

"What you did, when you cut off your senses," Pyrrha groused as she walked over, taking a seat beside him. "There was more to it than just using your ears, wasn't it? There was something _else _going on. It was like you weren't even blindfolded at all."

"You wouldn't be wrong," Jack returned, closing his eye. "To be perfectly honest though, it wasn't even my _ears _I was using."

"Oh? What were you using to sense Ruby's location?"

"Aura."

"Pardon?"

"I used _Ruby's _Aura to track where she was, even when I was blindfolded," he elaborated

" . . . I feel like I need some elaboration," Pyrrha said uncertainly.

"Well... How do I put this..." Jack said drumming his finger on his arm. "You know what synesthesia is, right?"

"Yes. It's the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body," Pyrrha recited as though she'd done so by a dictionary.

"Well... It's kind of like that... But it _wasn't_."

" . . . I feel like I need _further _elaboration."

"Look, it isn't cold-cut or anything, and it's kinda hard to describe," Jack said stroking his chin. "The best way I can put it is, when I tuned out my other senses, the world was really dark around me, but Ruby's _Aura _formed an outline around her that I could sense independently of my other senses. No matter where she moved, or how fast she was moving, where she was and what she was doing were clear as day."

"Ah, I see why you'd have a difficult time _describing _that," Pyrrha said taking a seat beside him. "It almost sounds as though you were trying to describe sight and color to a blind man."

"Pretty much on the nose with that one," Jack said with a nod.

"Might I ask where you _learned _such a technique?" Pyrrha queried.

"From a wise old jackal during my time in Skyrim."

"Ah, yes, you _were _pretty vague about that topic. You took offense to Jaune's words pretty easily that day."

"Hey, how would _you _feel if someone summarized your entire culture as going to toga parties, killing wild animals in gladiatorial arenas, and having crazy orgies immortalized in marble?"

"I would feel pretty _insulted _about that," Pyrrha said crinkling her nose in disgust. Just because she came from a Greek culture, didn't mean she automatically wore togas, or raced chariots, or _any _of those stereotypes. The one about killing wild animals in arenas for sport was _especially _insulting. In fact the Mistral Regional Tournament was created to _replace _the barbaric tradition of ripping animals from their homes and killing them off in front of thousands of spectators.

"So now you know how _I _feel," Jack said plainly. "I may've only spent a year or so there, but I soaked up that culture because it was the only one I'd really _known_, outside living in the Frontier."

"I see," Pyrrha hummed, feeling as though she'd pieced together a little more of her friend's past. "It must really be something, though, being able to _see_ Aura. I can't begin to imagine what that must be like. I'd give you an edge in any competition, that's for sure."

"To be perfectly frank, sensing living things by their Aura wasn't _originally _developed for fighting. It was made to help one commune with the world around them," Jack said as he closed his eye.

"How so?" she asked, genuinely curious about the history of such a technique. Originally, scythes were used to harvest _crops_. It wasn't until they were used for harvesting _lives _that the former farm tool gained any form of infamy and historical recognition.

"Well... Aura is the essence of every living creature, Creatures of Grimm notwithstanding. What most people aren't aware of, is that the air, the earth, and even the sea have bits of Aura in there too. If you go by that logic, the world of Remnant _itself _is a living, breathing entity, but in a different way than you and I. A long time ago, being able to _sense _Aura was a more-common skill than it is now. In fact, only a handful of Humans and Faunus as far as I know of can _see _Aura in that way anymore."

"What happened? I would think a skill like that would be incredibly popular with how it could be utilized."

"The march of progress happened," Jack said lacing his fingers behind his head. "As technology began to advance, people began pushing nature out of their lives, either crushing it underfoot or barring its approach with walls and ramparts. As time went on, people began to distance themselves from nature, and the ability to _sense _Aura was steadily forgotten until only a few practitioners remained. Then again, it's _habit _for Humans to push what they don't understand out of their lives, be it the nature they think they can control, or the Faunus they hate for simply existing."

"The way you talk about that so casually… I'm guessing Humans really hurt you before, haven't they?"

"Humans have been hurting me my whole life. It's only recently that I stopped _caring _about what happens to them. Live or die, I don't honestly care anymore. And it's not like I'll go out of my way to save them either if more-pressing matters come up," he waved his hand lazily.

"That seems kind of contradictory, don't you think?" Pyrrha asked. "Huntsmen and Huntresses are supposed to be the guardians of the _world_. If you don't go the extra mile to protect Humans as well, doesn't that go against the oaths you have taken?"

"I don't think so," Jack shrugged. "After all, people like Cardin, his flunkies, and even _you _will eventually prioritize the safety of Humans over Faunus. It's simply in your nature. Faulting you for it would be arrogant and hypocritical."

"That's not…!" Pyrrha snapped, but couldn't finish her sentence. She called Jack a hypocrite for wanting to become a Huntsman who would only protect Faunus, but saying she wouldn't prioritize her _own _species if it came down to it, was _just_ as hypocritical. "That's not wrong… I suppose…" she sighed, accepting the fact that Jack's actions were in fact _not _hypocritical in nature.

If it came down to _choosing _between a Human baby or a Faunus baby and she couldn't save both, deep down she knew she'd forsake the latter, simply because.

"Which is exactly why I need to fight the good fight that Humans _won't_," Jack answered. "And if another war breaks out, and the Kingdoms try to force us off of their land once again… the White Fang which hold our military might will become heroes, and Humans will once again become the monsters. War or no war, equality through peace or violence, I win either way. That's just the way the world works."

"What about _Ruby_?" Pyrrha asked, choosing not to tread towards his opinion on the White Fang since talking about them to Faunus was practically taboo. "She could very well prioritize the life of a Faunus over a Human, if it came down to that."

"Yeah, but that's just if she gets to live long enough to _make _that choice," Jack said as he sat up. "The nail that stands out gets hammered down. If Ruby disrupts the status quo, rocks the boat _too much_, the governing Council might have her killed off, rule it off as an accident so things stay the same and they can keep getting elected every year. It wouldn't be the _first _time Humans killed one another to get what they want and then swept it under the rug."

"That's… a very _cruel _way of looking at the world, don't you think?" she asked. She wouldn't even _try _to deny that point, because the countless civil wars that Dr. Oobleck lectured about in class was evidence-enough that Humans had no problem killing one another off to get what they wanted.

Hell, the Great War, the turning point of humanity from the path of self-destruction, was simply an over-glorified civil war, and by definition anyone who opposed the now-defunct nobility were nothing but murderous criminals who completely opposed their own ruling government for purely selfish reasons.

"The truth, like dandelion tea, is very bitter," Jack returned, the redhead raising an eyebrow in his direction.

"Dandelion... _tea_?" Pyrrha questioned with a raised brow.

"Don't ask," he deadpanned.

"That sounds like quite the story. I'd love to hear it sometime, if you're willing," she returned with a smile. It wasn't like she _loved _him or anything, and it wasn't because he was a Faunus. They'd just… developed a _different _kind of bond in the time they'd spent together. Like Jaune, Jack didn't see her as the 'Invincible Girl', didn't place her atop a pedestal to be viewed upon at range. To him, she was just… Pyrrha.

And no, she did _not _enjoy when he kicked her ass. That would be… ridiculous…

"That reminds me for whatever reason. How's blondie doing?" Jack asked out-of-nowhere, interrupting Pyrrha's rather _embarrassing _train of thought.

"Jaune? He's… still in a coma," Pyrrha answered, a bit of shame and disappointment creeping into her tone. Jaune, being the bottom rung of the ladder, was the first to lose consciousness before any of the members of Team CRDL. Deep down, it hurt her pride a bit to have a leader conk out that quickly, though she would never show it.

"Let me guess. You're a _liiiiitle _bit ashamed of having a leader that'd conk out that quickly, am I right?"

"H-How…?"

"It isn't just sensing what people are _doing_," Jack said as he closed his eye, momentarily opening himself up to the world around him. "With enough practice, Aura can be used to sense what one is _feeling_. I can't tell what you're _thinking_, I'm nowhere near my teacher's level, but I can hazard a guess you're a little disappointed in him, even if you'd never say it out loud."

" . . . "

"Feel free to say 'no' at any time."

" . . . "

"Guess I was right after all," Jack said with a shrug.

"That's not… I mean… Jaune's showing steady signs of improvement each day," Pyrrha argued on Jaune's behalf.

"Lasting one extra second each fight isn't what I'd call 'steady signs of improvement'," Jack deadpanned, complete with air quotes. "Not that I'm jealous or anything, but what do you _see _in that guy?"

"S-See in him? I-I don't know what you're talking about," Pyrrha stammered out, her face flushing as red as her hair.

"Pyrrha, I can _smell _the pheromones coming off of you whenever you're near him," Jack deadpanned once again. "You got it _bad_, don't you? Like, 'please fill me up with your dude-nectar' bad," he said making lewd gestures with his hands.

"I don't see how that's any of your business!" Pyrrha said back, her face beginning to flush as bright at her hair at Jack's choice in dialogue.

"Hey, I'm just saying," Jack shrugged. "Appearance-wise I'd say he's a seven out of ten, his stamina is next to abysmal, his academic performance leaves much to be desired, and his fighting ability is _beyond _sub-standard at best. On top of all that, the guy's a bit of a tool," he tacked off, Pyrrha's fist clenching and unclenching angrily. "I guess it's like they say. A girl raised on filet mignon will eventually want a ham- _***SLAP***_ -burger," Jack finished without missing a beat as Pyrrha slapped him.

"Don't talk about my friend like that!" Pyrrha snapped, holding her throbbing hand behind her back.

"I'm just stating facts," Jack said idly scratching the cheek just-slapped, not even the slightest trace of a handprint visible on his dark skin. "You might want to think about giving him some after-school lessons, and I don't mean the kinky fun-kind you probably dream about every other night." That particular statement cause Pyrrha to blush at how easily he could read her. "The further back he falls, the more he's going to drag your team down in the long run. And don't even get me _started _on the Vytal Festival. If he doesn't improve soon, you'll be dead in the water before preliminaries are over, and _then _where will your reputation be?"

"Maybe I will!" Pyrrha snapped at him, walking off in a huff, only to come to a stop after a few feet. "Um… Jack…?"

"What is it now?"

"I'm… sorry that I slapped you. That was out of line, and I'm sorry."

"Oh? Is _that_ what happened? I just thought a fly buzzed by in a kamikaze run. Go figure."

' _. . . I'm really starting to get why Weiss dislikes Jack so,' _Pyrrha sighed as she walked off. She was so lost in her thoughts, she scarcely noticed Ruby running past her.

"Jaaaaack!" the red-hooded girl called out.

"R-Ruby!" Jack squawked as she ran up to him. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be… in bed? _Or away from here?_" he trailed off to himself, thinking back on the terrified look that _he _had put into her eyes.

"Relax, I'm _fiiine_. Stop worrying," Ruby said coming to a stop in front of him.

"I'm… surprised you can even stand the sight of me, what with how I traumatized you and all," he trailed off, unable to meet her eyes.

"Jack, don't worry about it," Ruby said with a wave of her hand, before grabbing his face and forcing him to face her. "Jack, Jack! Listen to me. Look, I _get _that you went overboard a little, and _yes_, you did scare me until I passed out. But don't you think for a _second _that I'm just going to cut and run because of something like that. You and I… we're best friends, thick and thin 'til the very end. You don't have to worry about pushing me away, I _asked _for you to show me the good stuff, I just… bit off more than I could chew," she admitted before looking him dead in the eye. "Trust me, Jack, I'm _fine_. I'm totally, _totally _fine. You don't have to worry about this pushing me away, that is _not _going to happen, alright?" she asked, Jack looking unsure for a few seconds before nodding. "Glad you understand. Besides, you didn't scare me _that _bad."

" . . . You wet yourself a little."

"Dangit Jack! I'm trying to have a moment here!" Ruby squawked as she flushed bright red.

"Sorry, sorry!" Jack cried as Ruby began to play-punch him. "I just sorta blurted that out without thinking."

" . . . It's alright," Ruby said after a few seconds, wrapping her arms around him and nuzzling into his chest. "I forgive you."

" . . . Thank you… Ruby," Jack replied as he returned the favor, petting her hair, the girl leaning into the older teen's brotherly touch.

***HIDDEN SCENE***

"**RUBY! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Yang shouted from the stands as Jack's technique continued to terrify her. "IT ISN'T REAL! IT **_**CAN'T **_**BE REAL!"**

"**It feels… pretty real to me…" Blake gasped as she faded in and out of consciousness. Flexing her claws, something she hadn't done in weeks, they bit into the flesh of her clenched palm, the pain grounding her back to reality. Blinking the tears from her eyes, Blake craned her head from side to side, her curious nature compelling her to see how her peers were faring.**

**Team CRDL had already checked out, all four members sprawled out. It looked like some of them had even begun frothing at the mouth.**

**Jaune wasn't much better off, only that he wasn't frothing. He too was completely out of it, his head resting in Pyrrha's lap as she tried to bring him back to the waking world, the Mistrali teen fighting to remain conscious all the while.**

**Right beside her, Weiss was sitting ramrod straight, seemingly unaffected by what was going on. However, another look into her eyes would tell you that while the lights were on, that domicile had vacated a long **_**time **_**ago.**

**The only ones who seemed even **_**marginally **_**unaffected were Yang, Ren, Nora, and Professor Goodwitch. Yang's attention was likely solely focused on the state of her younger sister, maternal instincts keeping her mind in this fight. Ren was clenching and unclenching his fist, breathing in and out evenly, his eyes never leaving the fight down below. Nora was shaking like a leaf, clutching onto Ren like a lifeline, but it didn't look like she was going to clock out any time soon. That only left Glynda Goodwitch, the woman gripping her riding crop and anxiously bending it, probably debating whether or not to call the fight.**

**Technically speaking, Ruby hadn't vocally yielded, and her Aura hadn't fallen below minimum safe levels. Jack's attack was purely psychological in nature, and there weren't necessarily any rules **_**against **_**such a thing. Banter was one of the most widely-used ways of getting inside a person's head and undermining their performance, but this was the first instance **_**she **_**was aware of where an Intimidation this powerful had ever been used outside of procuring Ingredients from the heart of the Frontier.**

"**Ruby! You're aiming at the wrong thing!" Yang shouted as Ruby panicked and began firing at the phantasmal beast rising out of Jack's Aura. "Aim lower! LOWER!"**

"**I don't think she can hear you…" Blake shuddered. "What even _is _that thing?"  
**

**"I don't know. It's hard to see in this dim lighting," Yang said squinting her eyes. "Is it a dragon?"**

**"No, it's got too much hair. Some kind of Sasquatch? A yeti?"**

**"Not with _that _muzzle. And the thing's got four eyes, _literally_."**

**"I think Ruby's about to check out," Blake said as Ruby fell to her knees, Yang vaulting over the railing a moment later.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**DELETED SCENE:**

"**Welp… Let's go home," Ruby said extricating herself from Jack with a smile.**

"**Yeah, alright then," Jack replied with a nod before his eyes widened. "Ruby, watch where you're stepping!"**

"**What, these?" Ruby asked stomping her foot on the catapult beneath her feet. "C'mon, Jack. Initiation was over two **_**weeks **_**ago, it's not like these things are still **_**on **_**or anything," she said as she repeatedly stomped on the launch pad for emphasis.**

_*Click-click*Click-click*Click-click*_

"**What's that noise?" Ruby asked.**

"**Ruby, get off of the-"**

_*Thunk*_

"**Son of a biiitch!" Ruby cried as she flew away, the bushes rustling behind Jack before their occupants burst out.**

"**Hurensohn!" Weiss cursed, now wearing a white shirt and pale blue lederhosen.**

"**Figlio di puttana!" Blake cried, now wearing a black hooded cloak with a beak-like cowl.**

"**Kuso yarō!" Yang swore, now wearing a white and red sailor uniform with yellow accents and a mini-skirt.**

"**Fils de pute!" Jaune cried wearing a beret and a horizontally-striped shirt with a baguette in his hands.**

"**Bikkju-sonr!" Nora squealed wearing a horned Viking helmet and a dead animal pelt.**

"**Kátharma!" Pyrrha swore, now wearing a toga and laurel wreath.**

"**Wángbā dàn****!" Ren also swore, wearing… exactly the same thing.**

"**Quick talking smack about my primary birth-giver and help me save Ruby!" Jack screamed at the lot of his oddly-dressed peers. If it weren't for the clothes they were wearing for… whatever reason, he wouldn't have known **_**what **_**languages other than English they were speaking.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**While I don't think this one is **_**anywhere **_**near as epic as the fight between Jack and Ren, I figured that Ruby needed a bit of character development and skill-buffing, so during this mini-arc of conflict, I figured it was time for Ruby to get some fight-action in in-story. Ruby may be the "bee's knees", but Jack's got 3 years on her at the minimum; the point at which he TRULY began walking the path of the warrior will be revealed in time.**

**As for the in-depth description about Jack's "intimidating presence" when most would've used only a VISUAL description, I tried to write it in the perspective of a person who had NEVER been through something so terrifying before; in this case, Ruby Rose. For those of you who've watched Toriko, watching the ****Four Heavenly Kings whip out their Appetite Demons might be old-pat, but when **_**we **_**see it, it is only as a spectator. **_**I **_**imagine, that whatever's on the receiving end, if it had never experienced that level of hunger/bloodlust directed toward them before, like Egon Spengler of the 1984 **Ghostbusters** movie, it would be "terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."**

**Zebra's theme seemed the most-appropriate, since from a predationary standpoint, Zebra is in most cases a voracious apex predator possessing an appetite without equal. Prior to learning Food Honor, during the Mellow Cola Arc, Toriko and Zebra's maximum capacity for calories stored were quantified at 3,000,000 and 4,500,000 KiloCalories respectively. That means at the time, Toriko's max Calorie count was 3,000,000,000, with Zebra's being at 4,500,000,000, and in minutes they can burn through the same amount of calories that someone like Komatsu would burn through in an entire year.**

**Of course, after learning Food Honor, faster than you can say "Power Levels are bullshit", these amounts quickly became meaningless for the series' main protagonists. **

**Of course, now I'm getting WAY off-topic. **

**Back **_**onto **_**said topic, I've left a few small hints about what FORM Jack's Appetite Demon/Intimidation takes. Can anyone guess what it is?**

**As for the dialogue at the end between Jack and Pyrrha, I've left some hints as to **_**who **_**Jack learned Aura Manipulation from. There's plenty of fanart for that sort of thing, but even if I hadn't seen it, me and any other RWBY author would've come to that conclusion on our own. Eventually. Can anyone guess who **_**that **_**is?**

**The Deleted Scene was just for a bit of fun, both as a ****Red vs Blue**** reference, and to express the multi-culturalism of both the cast and Remnant itself. There are **_**countless **_**languages all across Remnant, but English, and the exchange of monetary gifts/bribes have become the most-prevalent since the end of the "Great War" and the "Renaissance of Color" that followed.  
**

**Anyway, please leave lots of Reviews. The next chapter, and fight, is going to be a doozy.**


	20. Like Fire & Weiss

Despite what had happened that day, no divide was made between the leader of Team RWBY and its newest member. If anything, the bond between them had only been _strengthened _by the trial placed between them.

Upon returning to their headquarters, on the face of Ruby Rose, a radiant smile shone, allaying their fears of an unresolved dispute. As for Jack, there was a relaxed, almost _relieved _look upon his features, none of the trepidation or hesitation visible from when he had so quickly left the site of his and Ruby's fight.

As though nothing had even _happened_, everyone returned to their end-of-day routines. Ruby was up to her eyeballs in textbooks, working to become the best leader she could be. Weiss was doing very much the same, though the intent for academic perfection was more-prevalent. Blake read from the books of her personal collection, not merely those of the more _adult _variety. Yang was grooming her brilliant mane of golden hair, the care she put into those actions almost like a mother would with their child; almost _disturbingly _so.

She even _cooed _at it.

As for Jack… his routine was marginally more garbled, focusing on part of himself, with other parts on the members of Team RWBY he was presently closest to. As he sat at his desk, against the wall he had a textbook propped up detailing subjects that had been covered in class, occasionally turning pages. On the left and right sides of his desk were red and yellow spiral-bound notebooks, which were slowly being filled with pages of script, diagrams, theories, mathematics on physics, and other topics.

In the _middle _of all that however, and was the most attention-grabbing, was a thin leather-bound journal, a rainbow of colored pencils scattered around it as Jack alternated between illustrations and fanciful script in cursive writing; no one even _knew _where he got the freaking quill and ink well. The colors that largely dominated the illustrations were figures drawn in shades of icy blue, lush green, vibrant fuchsia, and warm orange. Whenever one of Team RWBY would try and peek at what he was doing, he'd either shift his body to bar their eyes from his work, or in the more extreme cases where they would _push _him, streams of dark-red paint-like Aura would rise from his body. Strangely enough, unlike before, only the would-be spies felt any form of weight upon them, while the others wouldn't notice until they saw it themselves.

Something Team RWBY _also _learned about their newest member, was that he was ambidextrous, based on how many tasks he was juggling.

As time ticked on, members of Team RWBY would alternate between tasks, doing all that needed being done before the day was out. The sun setting in the distance, as a group they all left for dinner. Not-so-surprisingly enough, aside from Team JNPR, everyone else gave them a wide berth. Supposedly, from what little memories they _did _have, Team CRDL was able to paint Jack Braxton to be some kind of demonic hellspawn with satanic familiars at his beck and call.

So basically, nothing different from the norm. Except for the "satanic familiar" thing. _They _all assumed that was some sort of group hallucination and tried to pretend it didn't exist.

"So… How 'bout them fights today?" Nora spoke up as she bit into her pancakes. That she was _somehow _able to get despite it being dinner time.

"Eh, I've seen better," Ren said plainly. Because he didn't have the insane pain tolerance levels as _some _people, he had to step out of the fights for that day. Also, he could _still _feel his kidneys aching from that Onigoroshi he chugged down, and for a lightweight like him, it was _not _a good feeling. The entire day he'd had to wear shaded lenses due to his sudden aversion to bright light. And don't even get him _started _on the loud noises.

"That reminds me for whatever reason, where's Jaune?" Yang asked looking around.

"Probably still in a fear-induced _coma_," Jack said plainly, a smile tugging at his face.

"_Figures _he's the only one still unconscious," Weiss huffed in contempt.

"Well, to be perfectly fair, _no-one _was expecting… _thaaat_," Pyrrha said awkwardly.

"Oh, and the Creatures of Grimm are any _less _terrifying?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. "If he can't even handle _that _much, then anyone he's expected to save will be up shit creek without a paddle."

"That's not very nice," Pyrrha growled, narrowing her eyes at the Faunus who continued to talk smack about her leader.

"Whatever," Jack said dully. "Hey Nora, as Jaune is now, would you ever trust him to watch your back in a situation where one wrong move means death and/or dismemberment?"

"Which would happen first? Death or dismemberment?"

"Either or."

"Weeeeeeell…" Nora hummed looking really indecisive. "No, probably not," she admitted with a shrug.

"I'd also show hesitation," Ren stated honestly.

"Yeah, he doesn't really inspire confidence," Yang added with a shrug.

"I'm surprised you would even _ask _such a thing," Weiss huffed poignantly.

"His fighting ability _does _leave much to be desired," Blake commented dryly.

"I don't think he'd be very good in a fight," Ruby admitted.

"Has he even _won _a fight since coming here?" Jack asked. "To be honest, I started nodding off after the first few losses. You can only laugh at skinny blondes getting the smack-down so many times before it gets boring."

"Oh, wait, I think there's a video on the school's sight about that," Nora said pulling out her Scroll, navigating a few buttons before placing her item in the middle of the group.

"**AAAAAAAH!" Jaune yelled as he rushed at his opponent with sword held high, Jack clocking him in the jaw with an uppercut and knocking him out instantly.**

"Whoops, wrong one," Nora said nervously, going back and trying to find _a _video of Jaune winning. Only students could access those records, and even then it could only be about people who were part of their own Team.

"How'd you even _do _that?" Yang wondered as she tapped the Replay button to watch Jaune get one-hit KOd. "I would _kill _to be able to get one-hit KOs like that."

"I gave him a cerebral concussion by hitting him in the chin. Hitting it the right way causes a person's brain to rattle against their skull, inducing temporary functional impairment," Jack answered smartly as he tapped his chin. "You read an anatomy book, I'm sure you'll figure out how. Breaking a person is like taking apart an action figure. You just have to know where to put the pressure on to make the ball-and-socket joints come apart."

"Maybe you could give me some _after-school _sessions?" Yang asked rubbing shoulders with him; the wink she sent his way caused Ruby to squawk in embarrassment and Weiss to retch, while Blake just rolled her eyes. "In all seriousness though," she said adopting a more serious expression. "Your training with Ruby's been doing her a _lot _of good. Normally she taps out after a few seconds of using her Semblance. This is the longest I've seen her running non-stop."

"_Any _kind of training will have a positive effect. You just have to be willing to put the effort into it," Jack replied. "If Jaune spent as much training as he did trying to be the Schnee heiress' _paramour_, he wouldn't be such a colossal _failure_," he passively barbed.

"Oh, I'm _sure _Jaune will begin training very soon," Pyrrha said with a twitching eyebrow.

"I doubt that, but go ahead and think that if it makes you feel better," Jack said in a rather abrasive way as he ate.

"By the way, you're _really _packing it in," Ruby said taking notice of Jack's tray, which held enough food for three people. "What's the deal?"

"Hey, I've been working my ass off all week fighting all these really strong people. I _need _to pack it all in. Who _knows _what kind of person I'm going to fight next?" Jack said as he continued to stuff his face. "You should probably fuel up too. Starting next week, I'm upping your training," he said waving a spoon at her. "I want you walking through the sky like it was nothing before the year's out. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" Ruby said giving an exaggerated salute, zipping off to the buffet line, the girl who sat beside her sending Jack a burning scowl.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A couple hours after dinner, Team RWBY was winding down for the night. Everyone was now in their pajamas, settling down to go to bed, some of them taking care of some last-minute business before going to sleep. Ruby was cramming as much as she could before bed, Weiss was letting her hair down, Blake was getting comfortable as she read, and Yang did some stretches to loosen up.

"Aaand…" Jack said as he scribbled one last line of font in his middle notebook. "The End."

"The end of what?" Ruby asked looking up from her bed.

"I just finished drafting another fairy tale my mom told me growing up," Jack said snapping the book shut. "I'll bring it with me on my next visit to Jill."

"Which one is it?" Yang asked, Blake's attention piqued at whoever this _Jill _person was.

Weiss couldn't _care _less.

"The story of the Four Maidens," Jack answered.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Read it to me! Please please please please pleeeeeeease!" Ruby pleaded as she crawled out of her bed, scuttling across the floor before scurrying under Jack's covers.

"You sure?" Jack asked with a raised brow. "The ink's barely dried yet."

"Hey, remember who you're talking to here," Ruby pouted. "Besides, there are a _lot _of versions of the Four Maidens story, and I really want to hear the one your mom told."

"You _do _have a real flare for story-telling," Yang added. She was seventeen, but even _she _got captivated with the passion that Jack put into his story-telling.

" . . . Well alright then," Jack conceded as he scooted over to the left, Ruby settling herself on his right as Jack opened the leather-bound notebook. "Deep in the forests of Remnant, behind a great and mighty river stood the fragile home of a cold, frail man. A lone wizard," he said turning to the first page, upon it the image of a worn-down one-story house in the dead of winter, while beside it was the illustration of an old man with a long flowing beard in dark green clothes, a wide-brimmed hat atop his head, _within _said house. "Hidden from the dangers and distractions of the world, the wizard _seldom _had visitors, but on this day, as he peered out his window, his gaze fell upon a young maiden…"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"…The old wizard was at a loss. Never in his years had he come across such kindness," Jack narrated some time later. "It was in that moment, that he knew what should be done. The wizard _summoned _his magic, every ounce he could muster, and bestowed it upon the sisters," he said turning the page, to an illustration of the old wizard, his hands extended as radiant balls of light flew from his hands, each one stylized to symbolize the four season. "He smiled. 'Take this gift, and know now that you are able to do so much more.'," he narrated in a wizened voice. "Now armed with the elements, the very powers of nature, and the unimaginable power of the wizard, the Four Maidens, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, promised to carry onward with their journey, using their gifts to aid others, just as they had aided him." The next illustration was of the Four Maidens flexing their newfound magic, Winter turning water to ice, Spring making flowers grow in her palm, Summer conjuring a warm flame, and Fall calling upon the winds. "One by one the sisters left, but before they did, they made one final promise. They promised to return each and every year, to visit their dear friend. The End."

Lightly closing the book, Jack laid back into his bed, satisfied he was able to convey the story with as much emotion as his mother had when _he _was a child.

_'What I wouldn't give to her her voice... just_ one _more time..._' he sighed to himself before coming back to reality. "Remember, Ruby," Jack said softly as he stroked the girl's hair. "True magic results from courage of the heart. Boys and girls be ambitious. One step can change the world."

_*Snooooore*_

Looking down, Jack saw that somewhere along the line, Ruby had nodded off, snoring softly with a serene look on her face. Not only that, but she had wrapped her arms around him, using him as a pillow.

"_So cuuuuute~" _Yang cooed from her bunk, looking down at the two with a look on her face like the cat that caught the canary.

"_Ruby really likes bedtime stories, doesn't she?" _Jack asked softly, so as to not wake Ruby.

"_Yep," _Yang said with a soft smile. _"You even went the extra mile to raise the pitch of your voice and really _immerse _us in the story. You even made it so the Four Maidens didn't all _sound _the same. Most guys I know wouldn't do that."_

"_Well, I'm not like most guys," _Jack replied with a wave of his hand. _"Jill likes it when I read bedtime stories too when I visit, and after a while, it just became _natural _to put that kind of effort in."_

"_I noticed," _Yang said with a smile. _"I'm really glad to have you on the team."_

"_Happy to be here," _Jack said with a smile. _"So… Think you could help me get Ruby back into her bed?"_

"_Hmmm…" _Yang hummed as she made a contemplative face._ "Nope."_

"_Nope?" _Jack asked with a raised brow.

"_Nope," _Yang repeated._ "Ruby looks _much _more comfortable there."_

"_You really think so?"_

"_Sure. Ruby's _always _wanted a brother, and now she has _you_."_

"_She really thinks that highly of me?"_

"_Well… She may've also warmed up a bit more to you when you called her 'the future savior of the world'."_

"_That's just how highly I regard her," _Jack said as he looked down at her. _"Ruby might be young, but she has a _lot _of potential, and I honestly think she can make the world a better place."_

"_It's nice to hear someone other than family say that," _Yang said with a smile. _"Well, goodnight," _she then said before comically rolling over and beginning to snore, hitting the emergency exit to their conversation.

This left Jack on his own with Ruby, the girl lightly snoring. A small smile tugging at his features, Jack reached over before setting the storybook onto the floor, careful not to disturb Ruby. After adjusting his pillow a bit, he once more looked down at ber, taking in the adorable look on her face as she slept.

"_Goodnight. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite," _Jack said softly as he lovingly stroked her hair out of her eyes, the young girl nuzzling up to him as he pulled the covers up to their shoulders. His chin resting atop her head as she settled into the crook of his neck, it was a truly _beautiful _moment between two people so-easily able to overcome the bounds of bloodline and species to become siblings.

Of course… not_ everyone _saw it that way.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Over the past week, most of the days' events had been largely eclipsed by Jack Braxton's fights against the upper-tier fighters of the current Freshman class. It wasn't that the other three classes were _boring _so to say, but they were largely lecture-centric as preparation for finals in the week to follow. Even Professor Port of all people was able to knuckle down and talk about Grimm more than he did about himself.

At the moment, Doctor Oobleck's class was nearing its end, and the man was zipping from desk to desk handing back the reports he'd asked be done by Friday at the beginning of that very same week. On the various reports he handed back, he offered his compliments and pearls of wisdom, albeit most of it was so fast-pitched most of it was lost on them.

"Ms. Rose. While your report about the advent of modern robotics and the descriptive detail of various weapon systems showed your passion for your chosen topic, the report was not so much about the _history _of robotics, but more about the robots _themselves. _In addition to that, your failure to mention the surnames and doctorates of Thomas, Albert, and Mikhail resulted in point deductions," Dr. Oobleck summarized. "B plus."

"Aww," Ruby pouted as the man zipped away.

"Hey, don't look so down sis," Yang said putting a hand on her shoulder. "I think you did really well on that. Plus, you got a _plus_, which is always a plus. Eh? Eh?"

"That was so not funny," Ruby pouted as she playfully punched her sister in the arm.

"Mr. Braxton. Your essay on the Faunus Rights Revolution was incredibly graphic, made my blood run like water out of Ice Hell, and terrified me beyond the capacity for all rational thought. A plus!" he said slapping Jack's history report on his desk before zipping over three feet. "Ms. Schnee. Might I speak to you after class?" he asked before zipping away, giving the heiress no time to reply.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Eventually, the bell rang, signifying the end of Dr. Oobleck's class and the beginning of the lunch break. Some students rushed out like their lives depended on it, while others chose _not _to scurry towards the exit that got bogged down with students. As the last of the students were leaving, Weiss, whom Dr. Oobleck had asked to see at the end of class, approached his desk.

"You wanted to speak with me, Dr. Oobleck?"

"Yes. Concerning the content of your history report," the man said holding up said report.

"If it's about the citations at the end, I know they weren't _necessary_, but I felt like I needed to give credit where credit was due," Weiss said looking full of herself. "I believe it's some of the best work that could ever be done."

"If that is the case, we have a problem on our hands," Oobleck replied, causing the heiress to raise an eyebrow. "Ms. Schnee. While I commend your adherence to the detail of recorded history and the amount of effort you put into it, as an archaeologist and historian, I am deeply against the _use _of recorded history to promote one's own personal agenda and political views."

"What are you talking about?"

"I noticed that throughout the course of your report, while you put a great deal of effort into detailing the tactics of different generals, as well as the when and where of each stage of the conflict, you completely overshadowed the Faunus' _own _reasons for fighting. If anything, you seemed to be going out of your way to _condemn _them for their actions, and not-so-subtly attempt to change me to your way of thinking with persuasive dialogue."

"Those White Fang degenerates killed _thousands _throughout the course of that war!" Weiss argued, her mouth running ahead of her brain.

"It's true that Humanity suffered more losses than anticipated, and that many prominent family lines met their untimely end during that conflict. However, the White Fang only came into being _after _the war. Not before, and not during," Dr. Oobleck said pinioning her with a stern look.

"Urk!"

"Ms. Schnee, I am aware that your family has had less-than-peaceful dealings with the White Fang since their sudden change in leadership five years ago. I am also aware of all, and _whom_, you have lost because of your actions in the past," he said, and at this point, he adjusted his glasses. "However, you need to understand that the Faunus' actions are _not _unwarranted, and in some context, they are not necessarily _wrong _in their ways of thinking. Both Humans _and _Faunus are at fault for the current state of affairs within the world of Remnant."

" . . . What is it you're saying?" Weiss asked as her professor continued to challenge everything she'd been raised to think and believe.

"I urge you, Ms. Schnee, to leave all bias at the door. It is inflexible thinking like that, which promotes conflict, and the repetition of past mistakes," he said before drawing a red marker and scribbling on the front of her report. "B minus. You're dismissed," he said slapping the report on his desk before zipping off.

"Wh-What?!" Weiss yelped as she held the paper in her shaking hands, the **B-** staring up at her. Laughing at her. _Mocking _her.!

"Hey Schnee!" Jack shouted from the open doorway. "If you ask nicely, maybe I'll give you some _pointers_!" he taunted as he held up his own history report, the **A+** on the front causing Weiss to see red, Jack's smug look causing her to angrily gnash her teeth.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Jack Braxton versus Weiss Schnee."

Was what Glynda was wise enough _not _to say. Because _had _she said that, it would've led to the worst possible outcome. Ever. Of all time.

The randomization process appeared on her Teaching Scroll _before _it did on the main scoreboard, mainly so an instructor could make any necessary changes to the lineup if the gap between two _–or more-_ opponents was too wide; and even then, that decision was left to personal preference. However, if _this _matchup were to appear on the scoreboard, then she knew that those two would _happily _tear into one another. She and other teachers had seen the tension building up between them, and knew even the smallest thing could set them off like a powder keg of industrial-grade Dust.

While she _could _change one of the slots so Weiss and Jack did _not _fight, the problem remained that the _record _of them being selected would still exist after _acknowledging _that she received it. On the off-chance one of them found out, they'd wonder _why _they weren't allowed to fight, and probably insist _upon _fighting shortly afterward.

For various reasons she didn't want to think about right now, that would be very bad.

As such, she took the "fuck it" option, as Qrow would put it.

Doing this wouldn't _fix _the abrasion between Jack and Weiss, but it'd give Ruby Rose time to fix things between them. Beacon had a very hands-off approach to the internal workings of its Teams, expecting any disputes to be handled _within _the Team. After all, it wasn't like a dysfunctional Team in the field could simply call the Hunter Union and have _them _resolve internal disputes. Huntsmen and Huntresses needed to be able to resolve their issues on their own.

"Ah, it appears the stage's forcefield generator incurred some damage during the previous match," Glynda said, trying to keep a straight face. "Unfortunately, I'll have to cut classes short for today. However, don't think this means you're exempt from the assigned readings. Dismissed."

It wasn't a perfect solution, but ending class for the day and shutting down the program would prevent that data from being entered into the permanent records.

"Huh… Well, _that _was a thing," Yang hummed as Goodwitch walked off.

"Don't you find it even the _slightest _bit odd we're being let out early today?" Blake asked.

"We shouldn't question our instructor like this," Weiss stated sternly. "A malfunctioning forcefield generator poses a _serious _safety concern."

"Yeah. Plus, we _have _been putting that thing through its paces lately," Ruby said as she nervously scratched her cheek. "Part of that may've been on _me_," she admitted. Her speed-of-sound footsteps could _easily _have been part of the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. "My bad."

"Hey, that just means more _we _time," Jack said as he gathered his stuff.

"Don't you mean _me _time?" Yang asked.

"No."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So… What did you guys get on Dr. Oobleck's homework assignment?" Ruby asked once they were back in Team RWBY's room.

"Weren't you paying attention in class?" Weiss asked.

"I think she zoned out after she started doodling," Blake commented from behind her book.

"Ruby, I thought you were going to stop doing that," Yang chided.

"I'm _sorry_, but that class got really _boooring _towards the end," Ruby pouted. "But seriously, what _did _you all get?"

"What did _you _get?" Weiss asked. She already knew, of course.

"B plus," Ruby admitted. "I was _this _close to an A minus," she said holding her fingers an inch apart.

"A minus," Blake replied. She didn't _only _read porn all day long like _certain _people thought.

"A solid A," Yang commented. "Take _that_, every 'dumb blonde' stereotype."

"A _plus_," Jack said with a grin holding up his own paper. "_Weisscream _on the other hand got a-"

"Don't you _dare_-"

"B _minus_," Jack finished, putting extra emphasis on the _minus_.

"But isn't that, like, the lowest grade in the room?" Yang asked with a raised brow.

"Looks like _someone _didn't bring their A-game," Blake said with a smug grin. "Literally."

"If you want, I can give you some pointers," Ruby said patting her partner's shoulder, surprised that Weiss got _lower _than her, much less the whole room.

"What'd you even _put _in this thing that got you an A plus? The guy's super-strict when it comes to grading," Yang asked taking Jack's paper from his hand. Skimming through pages for a couple minutes and flipping through it, she got about halfway through before screaming- "Oh! Gross!" –and tossing the report out of her hands like it was on fire, the blond's partner catching it and flipping through it.

"What is it?" Blake asked, flipping through and skimming it before she too turned green around the gills. "Urp! Oh that's…" she said putting a hand to her lips. "That's just _wrong_…" she gurgled, unintentionally tossing it through the air towards Ruby. However, before the red-accented girl could catch it, Jack blurred into existence between her and it, catching it in his hand before she could get a crack at it.

"What I put in this A plus report might be a bit _much _for you," Jack said closing his report.

"Aw c'mon, now I'm _really _curious," Ruby pouted. "I wanna read it."

"You sure? Some of the historical facts mentioned in here may be a bit… graphic," Jack said nervously.

"That's _one _way of putting it," Blake deadpanned.

"Hey, I'm not a little kid anymore. I can handle some _nitty gritty_. Now hand it over," she said asserting her dominance as leader. Jack, looking over his shoulder to Yang who merely shrugged her shoulders in response, eventually submitted and handed his report over. Ruby took it in her hand, skimming through it with a great attention to detail. "Oh my god! Why would the Faunus _do _something like that?" she cried halfway through, the report sailing out of her hands as she flailed atop her bed.

"I assume you got to the part where the Faunus would coat their arrows, spears, and swords in fecal matter and caused rampant tetanus outbreaks at increments throughout the war," Jack stated as though talking about such things were perfectly _normal_, Weiss almost hurling at the mention of _fecal matter_.

"That's utterly _disgusting_!" the heiress retched, imagining the "animals" doing something so utterly _revolting_.

"Not only was it 'disgusting'," he said making air quotes, "but because Human soldiers had to use their OWN water and medicine to clean their wounds, their supplies would dry up quite rapidly. Because the Faunus attacked their supply lines in the dead of night, the troops that needed water had to get it from nature, and rivers make for perfect ambush points," Jack went on to explain. "If they didn't die from Tetanus, they died from exposure. If they didn't die from exposure, they died from Grimm attacks. If they didn't die from Grimm attacks, they died in battle. If they didn't die in battle, they died from Tetanus," he said counting off the many horrible ways to die with his fingers.

"A vicious cycle," Blake chimed in.

"Isn't that a little… cruel?" Ruby asked, Weiss turning up her nose with a grin.

"Is it any more cruel than shipping an entire race off to a penal colony to be killed off later for purely racist reasons?" Jack countered. "It's not like they could _afford _to use more-conventional means of warfare. From the very beginning, they had to salvage weapons from dead soldiers or get by on what they could make on their own because most Humans refused to sell to Faunus, lest they be called "traitors" and lynched in their own homes. They didn't have the numbers for straight-up combat, so they had to do _whatever _it took to preserve their freedoms. Guerrilla tactics were _always _the go-to method for minorities in asymmetric warfare."

" . . . I take back what I said. What the Faunus did was _not _cruel, in comparison," Ruby consented after a few seconds, causing Weiss to lurch.

"Well, I'm happy I could educate you," Jack said with a smile, the heiress' knuckles turning even whiter than usual.

"I'd heard _stories _about the Faunus Rights Revolution, but I didn't know _those _kinds of tactics were used," Blake stated. "Still, it was either fight or get deported against their will. I approve."

At this point, Weiss was gnashing her teeth.

"Yeah, what the _hell _people of twenty-years-ago?" Yang argued. "Trying to get rid of the Faunus just because you don't like them, it isn't _right_!"

_Now _she was just fuming.

"Jack!" Weiss called out, a little higher-pitched than she would've liked. "Can you come out into the hall with me for a moment?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Do you even really _care_?"

" . . . " Shrugging his shoulders, Jack rose from his seat, the eyes of the room's occupants on his and Weiss' back as they made for the door. Ruby made to follow them, but a smoldering gaze from the heiress froze her in place, before closing the door with a loud _***SLAM***_

"So… What do you want with me?" Jack asked the heiress with crossed arms, _literally_ looking down on her because of the height difference. The heiress' face scrunched up, narrowing her eyes at him before she reached into her breast pocket. Held in her hand was an immaculate white glove with the Schnee emblem on the back and lacy designs along the slender fingers.

Of course it didn't stay in her hand for long, because she threw it right at his face. Despite being made of silk, the intent gave it a weight as heavy as cast iron as it slid down his scarred visage.

"Jack Braxton!" Weiss shouted out as she jabbed a finger at his face. "I challenge you to a duel! With our pride and honor on the line!"

" . . . Heh, it's about damn time, _princess,_" Jack said, his eye turning predatory as he gained a bloodthirsty grin, sparks dancing between them as their Aura began to saturate the air.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

At Beacon's inception, the term "duel" was not used as frivolously as it was today.

Because the founding of Beacon Academy was the first time people from all four Kingdoms gathered together under the same roof, around the same table, in the same classrooms and on the same stage, tensions between people of different nationalities came to a boiling point as frequently as one drew breath.

Prior to attending Beacon, Valians, Atlesians, Vacuans, and Mistrali had only met on opposite sides of one another on the field of battle as mortal enemies. As such, all parties involved had centuries-worth of preconceived notions about one another deeply engraved into their psyches; memes that would require many decades to overcome until the now-current definition of peace was obtained. _Because _of these memes, fights between people of different nationalities broke out quite frequently, and more often than not, grievances between these parties would have to be resolved through violence, instead of words.

Initially, duels were used as a means of establishing racial supremacy between people of different nationalities. However, as time went on and imaginary borders began to break down, the purposes for these duels changed. Less often was it about whose _Kingdom _was better, but who _themselves _were better. Sometimes it was for the sake of friendly competition, other times it was about a rivalry between two individuals, and at times it was about a mutual respect of one anothers abilities.

As time went on, the _driving force _behind one party challenging one another to a duel became less antagonistic in nature, and more about a genuine sense of comradery and understanding between two peoples.

This… was _not _one of those times.

_***Knock*Knock***_

"Professor Goodwitch, are you there?" Weiss asked as she rapped her knuckles on the door.

"_I am. Please come in," _the woman in question said behind the closed door. "Ms. Schnee, what can I-" she said as the heiress' signature side-ponytail came into view, her heart stopping in her chest at who was behind her.

"Professor Goodwitch, I would like to formally request your services as a referee in a duel between Jack and myself," Weiss declared boldly.

"Might I ask… the reason you wish to have a duel with your own teammate outside of classes?" Glynda asked as she adjusted her glasses, keeping any signs of her unease hidden. "Duels that take place outside the curriculum will not yield any academic results in your semester's overall score."

"Yes, Weisscream. Why _don't_ you tell Glynda why you want to pick a fight with me?" Jack asked with an upward lilt in his voice as he grinned cockily behind her.

Weiss glowered over her shoulder at him, light-blue eyes cold like permafrost before she jerked her head back toward Goodwitch, her side ponytail slapping the Faunus across the nose as she pinioned a look at her instructor. "Professor Goodwitch, there are certain… _grievances _between Jack and myself that cannot be resolved by words-"

"Understatement of the _century_," the Faunus snarked.

"And I think it's time we had a heart-to-heart!" the heiress said more-assertively, her hand finding home on her Myrtenaster.

'_Oh no… I was afraid this was going to happen,' _Glynda thought as a knot of unease formed in the pit of her stomach, her mind running a mile a minute.

When Winter Schnee had joined the Atlesian Special Ops, very much so against the wishes of her father, Jacques Schnee, there had been a small uproar within the business world at one of the Schnee heiresses taking the career path _other _than that of capitalism. As word of Winter's accomplishments spread across Remnant, people began to gradually _applaud _Winter for choosing to serve her country, secure in the thought that the Schnee dynasty would eventually be passed onto her younger sister, Weiss.

However, a similar, if not _greater_, shock ripped through the business world as Weiss too ran away from home, in a sense. Eis was off on an extended business conference at the time, and thus hadn't learned his daughter had gone AWOL until she was already a continent away. Those that attended to her luggage on the first day were among her _personal _retainers, and without prior instruction from the man who signed their paychecks, assumed she had left for Vale with familial permission. By the time Jacques had been able to get in contact with Ozpin and demand his daughter be sent home, Team RWBY had already been founded with a room and everything.

Because attendees at Beacon were given a form of asylum from the affairs of their home Kingdoms, a leftover from the times where the agendas of most Kingdoms were incredibly self-serving, as long as Weiss met the minimum requirements and displayed a genuine desire to stay, there wasn't anything Jacques could do to _force _his daughter to come home.

In time, the hubbub caused by Weiss' perceived "defection" settled down, and the daily calls forwarded to Ozpin's office by Jacques eventually ground to a halt.

However, the moment Jack Braxton became a part of Team RWBY through the machinations of both the team's leader and Beacon's headmaster, and forced to share the same domicile as Weiss, Glynda immediately raised concerns with her employer. Ozpin the Aloof as some of the faculty had taken to calling him over the years, brushed it off by saying that everything would sort itself out in time, and that there wasn't anything to worry about. After nearly two weeks had passed without incident, Glynda was a hair's breadth away from marching up to the man's office and admitting, begrudgingly, that he was right.

All that changed the moment Weiss came to her office after-hours, requesting a formal duel with her Faunus teammate. Who wasn't Ms. Belladonna.

Honestly, Glynda could understand _why _she would hid her Faunus heritage given the current political climate, but a more-convincing disguise than a bow that twitched _could've _been used.

Back onto the topic at hand was that Glynda's worst nightmare had come to life.

Weiss Schnee, second only to Cardin Winchester, was the epitome of the "privileged white child" stereotype that plagued Beacon's most-recent batch of students. Jack Braxton on the other hand was a Faunus from one of the most notorious breeds of the Faunus Rights Revolution, and on top of that he was "black" by Human standards. At a glance the two went together like water and oil no matter how much Ruby mixed. Weiss on the one hand was from a family known for its deep hatred and relentless persecution of the Faunus minority, but because the Schnee Dust Company continued to bring in a profit, their more _questionable _business practices were largely ignored, either by volition, or the supposed "fiscal gifts" that often changed hands whenever the SDC came under scrutiny. On the other hand, Jack was a Honey Badger Faunus, a rare breed bordering extinct that, due to what his predecessors had done during the previous war almost two decades ago, was popularly blamed for the more _violent _shift in the once-peaceful White Fang's modus operandi.

Of course, there _was _basis for this line of thought, even if it was purely superficial.

You see, during the Faunus Rights Revolution, one of the many scare tactics that Honey Badger Faunus _-and those that fought alongside them- _employed was to craft bone-like masks and garb themselves in animal pelts dyed black. During the night, this was meant to act as camouflage, and sentries wouldn't know what was going on until blood and viscera began to fly through the air. However, during the _day_, dressing themselves like Grimm gave them a more intimidating, _monstrous _presence, which would cause morale to quickly fall as men were ripped to shreds and severed limbs began to fly through the air. While these actions were considered largely deplorable by Humans, it had prevented all of Faunuskind from being shipped off to what was essentially a penal colony, and thus they were considered heroes for it amongst their own kind.

With that kind of track record, it was easy to see why a minority _within _a minority would be blamed for one of the largest political upheavals in recent years. And this was where things began to get ugly.

If someone like Weiss, and someone like Jack, were to butt heads in a way that resulted in injury or even _death_, their actions would cause a political shitstorm that could very well erupt into a full-blown _race war_! The reason such a fight could cause racial tensions to reach that kind of boiling point was obvious-enough to faculty, hence why she herself went as far as to dismiss class early when both their names had been selected through randomization.

Long-story-short: Weiss Schnee and Jack Braxton shedding one another's blood was the _last _thing any peace-loving Human, _or Faunus_, wanted in the current time of peace. Tenuous as it was.

Short-story-long: Contextually, Weiss and Jack were essentially representatives for their respective species, albeit in a _very _small-picture kind of way. If Weiss won, or god forbid _killed _Jack, the Faunus community at large would interpret it as the Schnee family declaring war on their kind; in fact, common speculation among Faunus was that the SDC _spearheaded _the attempts at removing them from all Human settlements and placing them in Menagerie. Following would be a massive upheaval of the Faunus workforce in response to the attack on the _-speculated-_ descendant of a Faunus war hero, which would throw the global market into disarray, and potentially ignite another war. On the other hand if _Jack _won, or god forbid _mutilated _Weiss, the Schnee family would interpret it as the Faunus declaring war, and would likely spin it with their control of the media to play it off as an unprovoked attack. Following would be the SDC even further knuckling down on their Faunus workforce in retaliation, which in turn would push them even further into the arms of the now-militant White Fang, and potentially ignite another war.

"There isn't any way I can talk you out of this, is there?" the woman sighed tiredly. On the one hand, as long as no-one died, _noting _would come of this, but if things _did _go bad, it could be the spark to set off a political powder-keg.

"I must respectfully insist that this duel between myself and Jack be allowed to occur," Weiss said without any room for compromise.

"Honestly, I'm surprised it took her _this _long to crack and start with the death threats," Jack said lazily with a grin on his face that utterly perturbed the shorter girl in front of him.

"Using words on a degenerate like this is like casting pearls before swine. An _utter _waste of time," Weiss huffed.

"Ooooh. Four-syllable insult. Nice one, Lady _Schneeze_," Jack taunted back.

'_What I wouldn't give for one of Port's distractions right about now,' _Glynda sighed.

Elsewhere in Beacon, said professor was giving supplementary lessons to a sophomore that had fallen behind, and, in the middle of telling another of his stories, a sneeze suddenly overcame him, prompting him to spray all over said student.

And his mustache.

Port's own, not the student's.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Sooooo…" Yang drawled out as she drummed her fingers on her arms, she and Blake on the latter's bunk across from Ruby who was on Weiss'. "Jack and _Weiss _have been out there a pretty long time."

"_I _thought there'd be more yelling," Blake piped in.

"And screaming," Yang added.

"And making Weiss call him _Daddy._"

"Yeah-wait what?" Yang gawped, her partner burying her nose back into her book.

"Why would Jack make Weiss call him _Daddy_?" Ruby asked with an adorable tilt of her head.

"Um... You'll learn about that when you get older," Yang replied as she nervously scratched her head. Her dad would _kill _her if Ruby turned into some kind of sexual deviant before her first year of Beacon was even out.

"Oh, okay then," Ruby replied with a nod. " . . . Do you think they're even still out there?" she asked after a few awkward moments.

"Well, only one way to find out," Yang said hopping off the bed, boldly striding toward the door before throwing it open. " . . . No one's here," she said plainly after a few seconds.

"Where could they have gone?" Blake asked following her partner into the hall.

"Uh… _Any _way," Ruby deadpanned like a certain person of rank who said things that were blatantly obvious. "They could have gone _any _way."

"I heard you the first time," Yang grumbled, walking across the hall and rapped her knuckles on the door. "Hey, anyone in there?"

"_Coming!" _a voice said from behind the door, which opened revealing Jaune in a set of casual clothes. "Oh hey, Yang. Did you need something?"

"Yeah. Weiss brought Jack out into the hallway to talk to him, but they aren't here," Yang summarized. "You have any idea where they went?"

"Wait, _how _long was this ago?" Jaune asked in a worried tone, fear creeping at his heart that his _-eventually- _Snow Angel was off alone with someone like Jack.

Jack's little "display" the other day had _literally _put the fear of god in him. He _still _had flashbacks.

"Um… About twenty minutes ago," Yang said looking down at her Scroll.

"What's going on?" Pyrrha asked poking her head around the corner.

"Weiss and Jack went off somewhere, and we have no idea where. We were hoping one of you saw where they went," Ruby answered.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Maybe Weiss finally acknowledged her lustful _urges _for him, and dragged him off somewhere to play a game of _Where's the Badger_?" Nora speculated in a manic voice, Jaune visibly cringing as Nora's very _graphic _dialogue painted a picture inside his mind that _he'd _rather be a part of instead. And be replacing Jack with, not Weiss, because that'd be weird.

And gay.

Not that there's anything _wrong _with being gay. Two people of the same gender loving one another is perfectly acceptable but…

'_I just went to a very dark place…' _Jaune shuddered as he hung his head, much to Pyrrha's confusion.

"Nora, I don't think _that _is what Weiss dragged him off to do," Ren said being the voice of reason.

"Hey, you know what they say. Once you go black, you never go back," Nora said with a wide grin as she bounced on her feet and crossed her arms.

"Nora, dark skin for a Faunus doesn't _mean _they're black," Pyrrha interjected. "Remember that talk we had in the cafeteria two weeks ago?"

"Who said anything about Jack being _black_? It's a common term of phrase. Has nothing to _do _with race."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it does," Blake piped in.

"Well she either dragged him off for sex, or to have an epic death battle to the death! It's _one or the other_! Pick one!" Nora raged manically.

At that declaration, the hall's occupants grew deathly quiet as the ginger girl's words dawned on them.

"No… You don't think…" Yang started nervously.

"Nah… Weiss wouldn't…" Blake added just-as-nervously. "_Jack _wouldn't…"

"Oh, I _know _Jack would," Nora said with a smile, bouncing on her feet. _"Between you and me, Weiss is kind of a _bitch_. I have no idea what my team leader finds attractive about that," _she said whispering to the others behind her hand. _"I mean have you _met _the guy? He's kind of a tool. Weiss would eat him alive and spit him back out. And not in the kinky fun way."_

"Nora," Ren deadpanned.

"I'm right here you know…" Jaune sighed in a defeated tone.

"Jaune! _There _you are!" Nora shouted as though the scraggly blond had _just _come into the conversation. "How've you been? You been working out?" she asked feeling the muscles on his arms (read: the lack thereof).

"Don't patronize me."

"I think we're getting a little off-topic…" Ruby sighed, slightly red-in-the-face from Nora's blatant talk about Weiss potentially dragging Jack off for sex. She may've been two years younger than everyone else, but even _she _took Sex Ed back at Signal.

It was right around the time Yang forwarded those really embarrassing pictures of her to Arthur. Made that class _really _awkward for the two of them.

"I suppose the million lien question is, where did they _go_?" Pyrrha asked as she looked left and right down the hall.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, in an attempt to placate Weiss and Jack, as well as keep the fight away from prying eyes, Glynda spirited the two away to one of the training grounds just outside of Beacon. It was completely flat ground covered in short grass and dotted with patches of exposed dirt, surrounded by forest and shrubbery on all sides, a few boulders of varying sizes dotting the field. There was only one _official _way in and out, a few stone-hewn benches by the entrance, and not much else.

Before the advent of protective forcefields, areas like this were the go-to training ground for aspiring Hunters to train, spectate, or _be _spectated by their peers; even being a _spectator _at the time was training unto itself. As time went on, the Training Grounds saw lesser and lesser use, some falling into complete disuse and being reclaimed by nature. Those that remained were either upkept by groundskeepers looking for overtime, students who were forced to do so as punishment, or even instructors who felt like doing so out of boredom.

Like that one weirdo who practically _insisted _on using his flamethrower to light the candles on birthday cakes, or mowing the lawn with what was _essentially _a small nuclear device. Whatever _that _meant.

Glynda did _not _like thinking about her last boyfriend.

"Alright, this should be far-enough away from the school that we won't disturb anyone," Glynda said as her two students followed her. The die had already been cast, that much was certain, all she could do was run damage control, and _keep_ said damage to as much a minimum as possible.

"Good. I wouldn't want this to become a _spectacle_," the heiress commented. She was wearing her usual outfit, but she now had a white bandoleer of Dust cartridges synched tightly around her waist, all of it the highest quality that money could buy.

"Why? You afraid of someone seeing me bend you over my knee and give you a good _spanking_?" Jack asked as he rubbed his hands together. His weighted vambraces and greaves were now absent, leaving only his leather chestguard and pauldrons.

"That is _not _how this encounter will play out!" the heiress snarled. "The one who will be going down is _you_!"

"Going down? On the first date? Why Lady Schnee, I didn't know you were so _naughty_," Jack said waggling an eyebrow at the heiress, fueling her ire.

"Enough!" Glynda shouted out. "You asked me to mediate this duel, so I'm going to lay down the rules, and you _will _follow them," she said sternly. "Neither of you are allowed to leave the bounds of this Training Ground. At your own… request, I will permit either party to continue fighting even after your Aura has been depleted. However, know that if either of you intend to go for a killing blow, I _will _step in and call the match to an end. Apart from that, there are no _forbidden _techniques. Any fighting technique or form of Dust manipulation is permissible. There is no time limit. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Weiss said curtly nodding her head, drumming her fingers on her Myrtenaster as she walked towards the center of the field.

"Yeah," Jack replied as he rolled up his sleeves, exposing the criss-crossing scars on his arms. His eye had been amber-colored almost the entire walk here, showing he was itching for a fight.

"Very well then. Move to the center of the stage and face one another," she instructed, Human and Faunus doing just that. "Turn around, and take ten paces away." They did just that, putting some distance from one another. The two turning around, Glynda opened up her Scroll, which measured their respective Aura levels, as _well _as their biometrics. " . . . Begin!"

**Cue Fairy Tail OST – Ice Edge Exhibition**

Weiss was quick to draw her rapier, twirling with a flourish, the revolving mechanism clicking before her blade turned cyan, and it was stabbed into the ground. A line of jagged ice spikes rose up out of the ground in a line, Jack backpedaled before leaping to the side, the line of ice passing by him. However, a sudden fluctuation of Weiss' Aura caused another line of ice to branch out of the present ice wall straight at him, faster than before, before it enveloped Jack's right arm up to the elbow and held him, _and _his gun, in place.

"Yes!" Weiss smirked. Thanks to the highest-quality Cyan Dust she'd loaded into her rapier, even something as large as a Deathstalker would be hard-pressed to free itself right away. Something the size and cross-sectional muscle strength of a Human would be hard-pressed to free themselves any sooner than a full minute of repetitive blows.

"If you think a little bit of ice is going to stop me, think again!" Jack yelled as he drew his left arm back. His muscles flexing and coiling, he delivered a powerful hook to the ice surrounding his arm, shattering it in a single blow, much to Weiss' shock. "Compared to the ice in Skyrim, yours is brittle as glass," he said brushing pieces of ice off his shotgun-axe. "C'mon Ice Queen, give me your A-game. Or should I say, B _minus _game?"

"Tch," Weiss clicked her tongue as she yanked her rapier from the ground. Rising into a stance, the revolving mechanism spun before her blade glowed an angry red, and Weiss flung herself at her opponent with a Glyph. Drawing her crimson blade out across her body in a horizontal slash, Jack whipped out his axe in response and intercepted her needle-like blade with the flat of his own. The two colliding, a plume of crimson particles danced around them, the ground at their feet rumbling under the force of the blow.

Three times more Weiss lashed out with her glowing red blade, and each time Jack intercepted them with the flat of his weapon, the air around them stained bright red, the ground at Jack's feet beginning to crack under the force. Stepping back, a Glyph appeared beneath her feet and she flung herself at him with greater force. Her opponent rapidly twirling his axe in response, the two blades meeting blade-to-blade for the first time, the force of the recoil actually enough to send it up, but not _out _of his hands as he slid back. The heiress changing ammunition as she leapt back, the revolver changed from Red to Teal, the blade following suit as she drew her arm back, ribbons of wind dancing along the blade.

With an angry shout she thrust her blade forward, a powerful horizontal tornado ripping through the air off the end of her blade, careening towards her opponent. Jack dodged wide, but not wide enough as random wind blades scratched at his left arm. Behind him, trees were either broken in half or completely uprooted from their places in the ground as Weiss' gale-force winds buffeted them. The heiress' gaze following her opponent, instead of a thrust, she went for a slash, sending a powerful blade of wind at her opponent. Jack jumped over it, countless trees at his back felled from the powerful air-blade that sheared through them. Weiss slashed again at her airborne opponent, only for him to kick off the air and leap over _that _attack too.

A scowl appearing on her face, with a wave of her hand a staircase of Glyphs appeared, the heiress ascending their heights until she was at eye level with Jack, the Faunus lazily using Sky Walk to remain airborne, an easy feat now that he wasn't weighed down by 100 kilos. Flicking her hand out in a circle, Weiss formed a ring of mid-air Glyphs above the stage just short of the boundary, angled slightly inward. Thrusting her rapier out, smaller needles of wind were sent at her opponent, who kicked away from them and landed on one of the heiress' own Glyphs, before he began running at her. Weiss began strafing away from him, sending needles and blades of wind screaming towards her opponent, who flipped or rolled out of their reach.

Tensing his legs against his platform, he suddenly disappeared in a blur of movement, and the moment he left, Weiss' Glyph was shattered underfoot. Jack appeared before Weiss barely a moment later, his drawn-back fist alight with crimson Aura as he punched the Glyph between the heiress' feet, the girl just barely able to leap away as her foothold was shattered. Jack was off again a moment later, his intentionally-sloppy Shundo shattering his footholds, taking them away from the heiress. Her options rapidly disappearing, the heiress retracted her footholds to recover her Aura, landing gracefully in the center of the training ground.

Her opponent diving towards her, clawed hands drawn back, the heiress' rapier glowed a bright shade of teal before she raised it to the sky with a shout of- "Cyclone!" The next moment a powerful tornado appeared with the heiress in its eye, her opponent slamming into a cyclonic wall of wind before he was haphazardly thrown away, tumbling across the ground before he raked his claws and came to a stop. The tornado disappearing, numerous needles and blades of wind were sent his way herding backwards toward one of the boulders dotting the edge of the training field, a powerful horizontal cyclone actually _embedding _him in the rock.

"Take a bath, you filthy animal!" the heiress scowled at Jack's dirt-covered form. Myrtenaster's revolver changing from Teal to Blue, she waved the tip in the air like a conductor, water droplets condensing rapidly before forming a large sphere of water above her head. A quick trio of blade swipes sent globules of blue liquid accelerating outward, Jack freeing one of his arms just in time to protect his face as his body was buffeted. A more-graceful flourish prompted the liquid to turn into a long snake-like shape, its eyes glowing white with a gaping maw making gurgling sounds. Coiled inward like a spring, the water snake was suddenly off like a gunshot, Jack freeing his remaining arm in time to perform a cross-guard, the attack soaking him to the bone and turning the ground at his feet into mud. "Tidal Wave!" Weiss shouted as she slammed the last of her water onto the ground, before directing it straight at her opponent in a large wave, the water overtaking him.

"Blugh!" Jack gurgled as he was almost dry-drowned, Weiss repeated assault preventing him from freeing his body.

"You're right where I want you!" Weiss smirked as her Myrtenaster's blade turned cyan. Pointing her rapier at her opponent's feet, on the ground beneath the water a cyan-colored Glyph appeared, spinning rapidly. "Absolute!" she shouted out as her Glyph became a spinning blur of color. The next moment, a jagged block of ice rose from underneath him, feeding off the water at his feet and completely encasing him in a solid block of ice two meters thick on every side. "Yes, I got him!" the heiress cheered, a confident look on her face as she flipped her hair over her shoulder before walking away, waiting for Glynda to call the match. However, the heiress froze mid-step as a rumbling sound met her ears, Glynda's eyes locked firmly on the miniature glacier now sitting within the training ground.

Looking to the ground at her opponent's feet, she saw pebbles bouncing around, while particles of dirt were dancing about. Looking higher, she saw that the scars on her opponent's body were glowing an angry shade of orange like embers in a fire, and his eye, now crimson, snapped in her direction, causing the girl to yelp in shock. Jack's skin taking a dark-reddish tint like maroon, his body was actually _vibrating _inside its icy prison, the water around his body beginning to bubble until he was completely obscured from sight.

A few seconds later and a foot crashed through the side of the icy prison from within, clawed hands ripping the frozen wall apart. His dark-reddish body was actually _humming _in the open air, the water on his body turning to steam and drying his clothes.

"H-H-_How_?!" Weiss gawped, visibly shocked to see her opponent had gotten freed from what _should've _completely incapacitated him.

"Pheh, not only is your ice brittle. It's lukewarm too," Jack cackled as he shook the ice out of his hair. "I didn't even have to use _Shivering _all that hard. Skyrim was _much _colder than these half-assed Dust attacks of yours."

"A Schnee _never _does anything half-assed!" Weiss snapped at him.

"Based on how you're full-blown _race war _racist, I'd be compelled to agree," Jack said wringing out his clothes as he walked forward. "You've had your fun. Now it's _my _turn to be on top," he said shifting his feet on the ground.

He suddenly hopped left, then right, then right again, before hopping left and then repeating. At first it looked like he was doing side-to-side hops for gym, but suddenly the pace began to escalate, a cloud of dirt kicked up at his feet as his speed continued to increase. After a few seconds the edges of his body began to lose their definition, until there were a total of _three _of Jack, their bodies flickering as the dirt at their feet whirled from side-to-side.

"Wh-What?!" Weiss gawped as her opponent became three.

"**Bl-l-lake isn't t-t-the **_**only **_**o-o-one who can ma-a-ake clon-n-nes," **the copies said in triplicate. Then, in tandem they began to stride forward, the speed of his short-range Shundo making it difficult to tell which was real and which were the afterimages. The heiress' eyes rapidly panning from side to side, trying to find the real as they approached, tightening her grip on her Myrtenaster, she back-hopped into the air and landed atop a blackened Glyph, coiling the power deep inside of it like a spring before firing herself off like a balista.

A streak of white and silver through the air, Weiss chose the middle-option, since that was where her opponent was twice-as-likely to be. And even if she were a second late, he'd still bump into her, and _then _she'd have him.

Her rapier passing through her intended target, before she could determine which to her sides was the real one, she felt a hand wrapping itself around her side-ponytail. The sudden stop caused her feet to slip out from under her, momentum carrying the rest of her body forward. Pain exploded across her scalp as Jack stopped her by the roots of her hair, and it felt like her head was about to pop off her spine.

She was suddenly hauled backward, and a jumping knee kick was driven into her back. Stars exploded across her vision as the strike nearly folded her in half, bones creaking inside her body as she was sent flying away. And unlike Ren, she wasn't shitfaced off of Onigoroshi to dull the pain.

Weiss painfully tumbled across the ground, her bones aching from the force of the blow, pain lancing through every part of her body each time she landed on her back. By the time she'd come to a stop, her pristine white skirt and bolero jacket were stained brown and green from her tumble through the dirt. Rolling over and getting her legs under her, Weiss came to a shocking conclusion.

'_If I hadn't used my Aura at the last second… that would've broken my spine!' _

Before she could raise her hands from the ground, Jack's sandaled foot mercilessly drove itself into her ribs, his forward-kick sending her tumbling across the ground once again. A pained gasp leaving her lips, Weiss soldiered through the pain as she willed a Glyph to send her away, a hand cradling her ribs as she put some distance between her and her opponent.

"What's wrong, Ice Queen? You were talking all that _good _shit a second ago, and then I BEAT YOUR FUCKING ASS!" Jack taunted. "Interracial beatings aren't fun when _you're _on the business end, is it?"

"Shut… up!" Weiss growled, as she forced herself to her feet. Pointing towards the sky, a Glyph appeared perpendicularly to the ground, and with swipes of her Myrtenaster, balls of hot and cold caused by Red and Blue Dust were sent flying through the air, impacting both sides of the Glyph at the same time. The glyph spinning, the energy from the two Dust projectiles was drawn into it, until a large white cloud began to take shape.

"Weather manipulation? At your age?" Jack hummed as he crossed his arms, looking up at the weather phenomena above his head. "I'd say I'm impressed, but that stuff's _super _high-quality. Anyone with a _pulse _could make a raincloud with that stuff. Now, if you were on a _commoner's _salary, _then _that would be impressive."

"Just be quiet!" Weiss angrily growled as her revolver clicked into another setting, this one alighting her blade like gold. With a swing of her blade, Weiss sent a charge of Gold Dust sailing into the cloud overhead. A rumbling soon began to bellow out just above the treeline, Weiss' white cloud turning a shade of black as it grumbled angrily, arcs of electricity bouncing through its surface. "Behold, my awesome power!" she intoned as the cloud began to angrily rumble. "INDIGNATION!" she called out, a massive bolt of lightning punching through the thunderhead, careening towards the ground at _literally _lightning-fast speeds.

The loud _***RMMMBLLLLL* **_of thunder echoed through the afternoon air, and many across Beacon would turn their eyes to the northern skies, looking for signs of storm clouds, only to find none. In the middle of the training field, a massive cloud of dust had been kicked up by the force of Nature's Wrath, the smell of ozone filling the air so much that even _Humans _could smell it. And at the edge of it all, sparks dancing off the tip of her rapier, Weiss had a satisfied look on her face.

"Well… That's that," the heiress said with a smirk on her face. Turning to her instructor, she saw that Glynda's eyes were firmly locked on ground zero through the cloud of ozone-scented dust, nervously gripping her scroll. "Come now, don't make that face, Professor. That degenerate had it coming. In fact you could say he got… _thunderstruck_."

"You know…" a familiar voice said aloud, one that caused Weiss to stop cold. "I'm not sure what hurts more. That pun, or your little lightning bolt," the Faunus postulated to himself as the dust began to settle. "Oh wait, the _pun _hurt more. And you wanna know why?" the Faunus asked as the last of the dust began to settle. "It's because you _missed_," he said with a bored expression on his face as he pointed a finger at the ground, his body a couple meters away from the blackened crater he was standing at moments before.

"Wh-wh-what in the…" Weiss gawped, seeing her opponent completely unharmed. "How… How did you _dodge _that? That lightning bolt was moving at over one hundred kilometers per-second!?"

"Heh… It's _true _that lightning is one of the fastest discharges in the natural world, and against anyone else, you probably _would _hit them with a one-hundred percent certainty. However… just like in nature, you're using the wind through Teal Dust to control the electrical potential difference. For a guy like me who's seen Skyrim's climate extremes first-hand, just like any _other _experienced hiker out there, I can predict where lightning will strike by the feel of the air, and since you were ever so polite as to send a 'hello streamer' in front of your attack like _real _lightning, it might as well be a telephone punch," he lectured. To add insult to injury, the entire time he was taking a condescending tone like the one a teacher would use when their student did _not _know the answer to a question and had to be explained the answer in front of the whole class. The finger-wagging did _not _help the heiress in keeping her cool.

Then, as if to add _further _insult to injury, he formed a loop with his fingers and pulled his hair out into a side-ponytail, before taking his Scroll from his pocket, pressing it to his other ear, and saying in a raised octave- "Hello, Jack? This is Weiss speaking. Listen, I'm going to send a deathly fast attack at you in two seconds, so um, please be careful." Letting go of his hair, he then said in his own voice- "Thanks for the warning teammie. I'll be sure to dodge it."

"Rrrrrgh… Don't lecture me!" Weiss fumed.

"Hey, you _did _ask how I dodged. I merely felt magnanimous enough to _educate _you. That B minus from today shows you're getting lazy," Jack taunted. "Short-bus girl needs all the help she can _get_."

"Don't get smug with me! You just got lucky!" Weiss growled as her rapier alit gold once more. "Thunder Lance!"

_***KRAK***_

_***RMMMBLLLLL***_

"Missed meee~"

_***KRAK***_

_***RMMMBLLLLL***_

"Missed meee~"

_***KRAK***_

_***RMMMBLLLLL***_

"Now you gotta _kiss _meee~" Jack sung in a sing-song tone as he dodged Weiss' next three lightning bolts, each only a fraction as powerful as the opening salvo.

"Stand still!" Weiss growled as she called down another bolt of lightning, only for Jack to once again, dodge it when the air around him changed.

"Make me, _bitch_!" he taunted as the air overhead rumbled. In his eyes, the air in front of him rippled in a stream like a mirage, and jumping back, the bolt of lightning streaked through the air on its predetermined path.

The cloud overhead beginning to dissipate, a Glyph appeared beneath Weiss' feet and she lunged at him, the Faunus leaning to the side just enough that her combat skirt brushed against his waist as she passed. A Glyph appearing in mid-air stopped her and she lunged at him again, the Faunus dodging, the heiress having another aerial platform waiting for her. This process repeated itself five times, the Faunus putting more and more effort into dodging the heiress' attacks as she tightened the distance between them, their bodies practically brushing against one another as she tried to gore him.

At the eighth lunge, the moment Weiss passed her opponent, a hand clamped down around her ankle. The sudden stop almost dislocating her leg from her hip as she was roughly thrown backwards, tumbling across the ground, chipping a nail or three as she tried to stop herself with her free hand. Looking up, her eyes widened in horror as her bandoleer of Dust Vials was now in Jack's hands, and without a care in the world, callously scattered its contents about before throwing it into the bushes.

'_My Dust!' _she cried inside her head as countless Drachma worth of Dust clattered around the dirty field, all out of reach.

"Your little ballerina tricks don't appear to be working," Jack taunted as he clapped his hands of dust. "Maybe you should try that _Summoning _your family's so fond of using with their Glyphs. They're all so _inbred _that's all their Semblance can ever _be_! And that's _saying _something."

"Shut up!"

"Your parents were siblings!"

"Be quiet!"

"Oh I'm sorry, my bad," Jack apologized. "They were _cousins_."

"RrrrRRRRRGH!" Weiss raged at the insult towards her father and primary birth-giver. Focusing all her anger onto a single point.

Jack. Mother. Fucking. Braxton!

'_Remember your training, Weiss,' _the white-haired girl told herself. _'Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward,' _she intoned to herself as she pointed her rapier at the ground in front of her. Instead of her _typical _glyph, this one had more arrows and snowflakes and they were much smaller, a quartet of swords pointing in the cardinal directions whirling along the concentric circles.

'_Think to your fallen foes! The ones who forced you to push past where you were, and become who you are now! Think of them, and watch as they come to your side,' _she told herself as the new glyph began to spin faster, and faster, thrumming with incredible power, her Aura condensing into a single spot as she-

_***POW***_

-right in the kisser!" Jack taunted as he jabbed her in the face, causing her head to snap back. "Pow, right in the kisser! Pow right in the kisser!" he said as he repeatedly jabbed her in the face. Not enough to actually _hurt _her, but _just _enough that it completely shattered her concentration, the more-intricate glyph flickering out completely as he continued to play-jab her in the face. "Pow right in the kisser! Pow right in the kisser! Pow right in the-"

"HRRAH!" Weiss growled as her rapier turned cyan as she swung it at Jack, a massive blade of ice crystalizing in mid-air behind her and following her arc. Jack crossed his arms, but the massive blade was able to send him reeling back, taking a chunk out of his Aura in the process.

"_Now _we're _getting _somewhere!" Jack cackled as he brushed shards of ice off his arms. Flexing his claws, he charged headlong at Weiss, he and the heiress' weapons clashing, forcing sparks to dance through the air as the heiress was pressed into the defensive.

"GRRRR!" Weiss growled as for every claw slash she blocked, another would slip through and rend tears in her clothes. "WHY! WON'T! YOU! STAY! DOWN!" she yelled between blocks as she suddenly delivered a backwards bicycle kick to his chin, his claws raking lines down her ivory legs even as he staggered back. "ON YOUR KNEES, FOUL BEAST!" she roared as a purple Glyph depicting a geocentric universe appeared beneath his feet. "GRAVITY WELL!"

The next moment, the air above the Glyph in a perfect cylinder suddenly turned darker and grainy, vertical black lines filling and flickering every square inch as Jack was suddenly forced to his knees. Forced to brace his hands against the ground, the grass at his feet flattened, the dirt cracking, as the ground beneath his feet began to crater inward. It suddenly felt as though someone had dropped a half-dozen Ursa onto his back, his bones beginning to creak as the heiress' Dust Spell weighed down on him.

"Why don't you stay there and think about your trespasses!" the heiress snapped, pumping more of her Aura into the attack, hers and Jack's dropping within Glynda's scroll as the ground cratered more and more with each pulse.

"Pheh!" Jack spat, his saliva taking a nosedive and making a dent in the dirt between his hands. "Clearly... you haven't been paying _attention_… to how my _Semblance _works," he growled as his eye glowed a baleful red, almost as though someone had filed it with bio-luminescent fluid. "Burst… TIMES TWO!" he suddenly shouted as a crimson flame-like aura exploded from his body. The plume-like edges unfettered by the Gravity Well surrounding him, as he brought one of his legs under him and pushed up, his bones began to creak and groan, almost _audibly_. "Burst… TIMES THREE!" he shouted again, the aura around him intensifying as he shakily rose to full height, his skin gaining a reddish tint not unlike that from before, his muscles visibly bulging.

"More…" Weiss growled as her rapier glowed brighter and brighter. "I NEED MORE POWER!" she roared as the purple glow of her rapier almost turned white, the air within her Gravity Well darkening further and once more forcing Jack to his knees. "GIVE UP! WITH THAT MUCH GRAVITY, YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO _BREATHE _PROPERLY!" she ordered as the Glyph spun faster, the gravity intensifying so much that the ground began to shake.

"Bitch… please…" Jack wheezed as even under this tremendous pressure, he continued to force himself up. Weaving his Aura around his bones, his skeleton was practically _glowing _from inside his body. "The air… at Dragon's Tip… is _way _thinner… than this…" he said taking a shaky step forward, his knee hobbling from side to side, his leg groaning like a branch on its last limb. "Burst… Times…"

"Don't you fucking-"

"FOUR!" Jack roared as Aura exploded from his body. The ground at his feet exploding, he lunged forward full-throttle. The moment he was free of Weiss' Gravity Well, instead of getting a finishing blow in, the Faunus fell to his hands and knees, vomiting blood and bile in large amounts, sounding like he was about to hack up a lung.

"Dammit…" Weiss swore as she staggered backwards, the purple glow of her rapier fading completely as the Dust Cylinder ran dry. _'He's made me burn through almost _all _my Dust…' _the heiress scowled as she rotated the revolver in her rapier. _'And if I try to pick one up from the ground… I'm a sitting duck,' _she scowled again seeing all the discarded Dust Cartridges scattered across the dirty ground.

"Blugh…" Jack gurgled as the upward flow of bodily fluid stemmed. "Looks like… you're on your last leg…" he sneered as he looked up, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead.

"You look like shit…" Weiss snapped back. The normally prim-and-proper heiress was dripping with sweat, her clothes were shredded, blood was running down her body, and her hair was a complete mess.

"You _smell _like shit," Jack returned with a grin.

"Bite me."

"Don't flatter yourself… you talking fishbone," he said coughing up another wad of blood as he shakily got himself up to his feet. "This is going to have to be our final clash… unless you want to play for keeps."

"Don't underestimate me…" Weiss growled as she cycled through her remaining Dust. "I've still got one trick… left up my sleeve…"

Myrtenaster settling upon cyan, Weiss stabbed her rapier into the ground, a thin layer of ice beginning to spread across the ground. The radius stopping just short of Jack's feet, though her arms felt like lead, Weiss raised her rapier again, and cycling through to the last bit of Red Dust, with a mighty yell she stabbed her rapier into the ground once again, the heat of her blade causing the ice to evaporate into steam, a thick mist completely obscuring the heiress from sight.

'_It's like Jack said…' _Glynda thought as the tension between the two began to rise. _'Any further… and they'll be playing for keeps,' _she thought as she looked down into her Scroll. Both parties' Aura was in the single-digits, slowly decreasing, she pressed a button on her screen to call for emergency services. _'I have to stop-'_

_***WHOOSH***_

_***SQUELCH***_

Before the woman could react, the mist suddenly parted, the white-clad heiress shooting through the air like an arrow. Before she could even blink, Weiss had already sheathed her weapon through Jack's left side, his feet skidding backwards from the force of the strike.

**END OST**

A strangled cough escaping Jack's lips, Weiss' tunnel vision dispelled in an instant. Blinking the fog from her eyes, she saw that both her hands were tightly wrapped around the handle of her Myrtenaster. Blood dribbling onto her sleeve, she looked up, a horrified look exploding across her face as she came face-to-face with Jack's pained visage, his teeth stained red as blood dribbled out the corner of his mouth and down his chin.

'_No… No, I didn't mean to…'_

Her Myrtenaster letting out a sickening _***squelch* **_as she tried to draw her weapon free, the heiress was completely unprepared for the scarred hand of her opponent to clamp down around her wrist, holding her in place like a vise. Looking up again proved to be a mistake, as the moment she did, her face was on the business end of a karate chop the disoriented her. She didn't let go, and another karate chop struck true, the sound of shattering glass flittering into her ears as her Aura finally gave out.

The third karate chop struck home once again, and at that moment, the scar around her eye suddenly exploded in pain. Her hands letting go of her Myrtenaster as they cupped her face, blood dribbled out between her fingers as she staggered back. A strangled cry of pain fled the heiress' lips as she jerked backwards, and at that very moment, a shadow descended upon her.

Looking up a _second _time with her remaining eye proved to be her undoing. A powerful left hook catching her in the cheek, the heiress was knocked clean off her feet and she was sent tumbling end over end. After she finally came to a stop in a crumpled heap, blood trickled freely from her re-opened scar. Weiss Schnee was now a complete wreck, her clothing in tatters, caked in sweat, blood, and dirt. Jack on the other hand had blood dribbling out of his mouth, with more of it gurgling out of his body from where the Myrtenaster had impaled him straight through.

Glynda, still dumbstruck by how far things had escalated, was unaware of Jack's footsteps until he came to a stop at Weiss' side, looking down on her. Even as blood dribbled out his body and along Myrtenaster's blade, he had a tired, almost empty look in his eye. One hand applying pressure to the front of his wound, the claws of the other flexed and retracted, like a person nervously toying with a switchblade.

For a moment Glynda thought that Jack might try and finish the job, something the White Fang had tried to do to the Schnee family numerous times over the years. However, when his eye blinked from baleful red to golden amber, before blinking again soothing jade, a sigh escaped the woman's lips as Jack's shoulders slumped.

"This fight… is over…"

At that moment, his legs buckled from underneath him, falling on his butt before toppling onto his side, his blood staining the Myrtenaster bright red. Moments later the air was angrily disturbed by chopping blades, a pair of UH-144 Falcons colored white with red accents descending upon the training ground. The moment the two touched down, a quartet of medics from each wearing medical scrubs poured out, mixed groups of Humans and Faunus alike carefully loading the two downed Hunters-in-training onto stretchers. Glynda let out a sigh of relief that they'd arrived just as the fighting ended, and the moment the two were loaded into the passenger compartments, the twin Falcons rose vertically into the air before flying to the infirmary's helipad.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"What do you _mean _we can't see them?!" Yang yelled angrily at an older gentleman with short-cut white hair and a matching mustache in surgeon's scrubs.

"It's as I said," the man growled nearing the end of his patience. "The two of them haven't even been out of surgery a full _hour_. I don't know whose bright idea it was to let _those two _fight, but right now they need their rest."

'Those two_… What does he mean by that? Why'd he emphasize it like that?' _Ruby wondered.

"Are they at least _conscious _right now?" the blond prodded.

"I don't see why it _matters_. You are _not _going in there."

"What, you wanna try and stop me?" the blond asked, her eyes flashing red.

"Bitch, I'm worth _ten _of you!" the man growled, finally nearing the end of his rope.

"Hey, you can't talk to me like that!"

"Hell _yes _I can! I've got tenure! I can say whatever the fuck I want!"

"See, I _told _you those two were having and epic death battle to the death!" Nora cackled as Yang and the Chief Surgeon continued to bicker about visitation rights.

"But _why _would they fight like this?" Jaune wondered. While Yang and the Chief Surgeon were bickering, the blond fop attempted to sneak a peek into the room, in an attempt to see how his _–in his dreams- _Snow Angel was doing. However, before he could get to the handle, a surgical scalpel flew through the air and struck him in the hand, causing him to scream like a little girl.

"Tensions have been building between them for two weeks now, and it's only _now _that they've come to a boiling point," Blake hummed, angrily opening and closing her book. She _too _wanted to get through that door, but not for the same reason as Jaune. Jack may've been a bit of a dick to her after he'd confronted her about her concealing her heritage, but despite all that, they had still become friends, and she was genuinely concerned about him.

"Nigger, fag, nigger, fag, nigger, fag, nigger-fag, nigger-fag, nigger-fag!"

"Hey! Watch your mouth around my sister!"

"Bitch, I've got tenure!"

"Well, it isn't like anyone _died _or anything," Ren said with crossed arms. "Still… I'm growing deeply concerned about Jack."

"What for?" Ruby asked. "It isn't like Jack's ever stayed down for long."

"Yes… And _that's _what worries me," Ren said with closed eyes. "Every day this week he's fought incredibly-tough battles one after the other in rapid succession, day-to-day without any real kind of break in-between. The levels of injuries he's accrued varied from fight to fight, but the problem lies in how this degree of constant Auric Manipulation is incredibly taxing on both his body _and _spirit."

"Really? But Jack seems so _good _at fighting," Ruby hummed putting a finger to her chin.

"It's possible he didn't have a _choice _in the matter," Ren said as his eyes snapped open, orbs of magenta turning to royal purple as cross-slit-eyes panned to Jack and Weiss' hospital room, his gaze narrowing as though he were trying to peer _through _it. "My biggest concern, is whether or not Jack is given the proper down-time to fully _recover_. His health might become compromised otherwise," he said as his eyes blinked back to magenta.

"Hmmm… You might be right," Ruby hummed as she turned back to Ren. _'Did his eyes change just now? Or am I just imagining things?' _she thought to herself. "What would you recommend?"

"That you, as his anointed leader, ask him to _not _fight at every opportunity and get some actual bed rest," Ren stated. "If he doesn't, I'm afraid he might burn himself out and cause permanent damage. To both his body _and _spirit."

"Hrmmm… I wouldn't want _that _to happen," Ruby pouted.

"Still… There's something _else_ bothering me," Pyrrha hummed.

"What is it?" Blake asked.

"Why would the two of them be placed in the same room after surgery? Who could even _make _that kind of decision?"

"Dunno. Maybe they were placed there because they're from the same Team?" Ruby asked. "Maybe you're over_thinking _things?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_***Siiiiiip***_

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, inside hospital room #356, the steady beeping of heart monitors filled the room. The room's only occupants were breathing slowly but steadily with the assistance of masks. Jack was a step away from being placed in a full-body cast, but he had a _lot _of gauze around the areas where Weiss had impaled him with her rapier. The left side of Weiss' face was bandaged, the right side was swollen, and she had bandages over most of her body, especially around her legs.

The sun setting in the distance as time went on, the room's occupants were eventually roused from their slumber by the rumbling of their stomachs.

"Uuugh…" Weiss groaned. For a moment, where she couldn't open her eyes, she thought she had been rendered blind. However, after calming down for a moment and thinking things through rationally, she realized that while her left eye was covered, her right had only swollen, and she _could _squint her eye enough to see. "What happened…? I remember fighting and… JACK!" she gasped as the memory hit her.

"Goddes, what _is _it!?" an irritated voice growled from the bed to her right.

"Jack, are you _alright_?!" Weiss cried out in shock.

"What kind of question is _that_? You're half the reason I'm _in_ this bed. Again," he snapped. "Seriously, if I come back here one more time, I might as well bring my own pillow."

At that statement, the heiress clammed up.

" . . . So… What time is it?" Jack asked after a few moment's silence.

"It looks to be… a little past eight in the evening," Weiss said turning her head and looking at the clock.

"Looks like we were out a couple hours," Jack hummed as he curled and uncurled his fingers. "You put up a pretty good fight."

"Yeah… You too," Weiss said quietly as she looked sidelong at her teammate, his skin a bit paler than usual, the scars on his face standing out. "So um… How are you feeling?" she groused. "You belched up quite a lot of blood towards the end of our fight."

"A little light-headed, but I'm fine. I've got eight more pints of the stuff," Jack said shrugging his shoulders.

'_Two pints lost should've caused Shock, yet he brushes it off so carelessly,' _the heiress thought as she pressed a remote button at her bedside, raising herself into a sitting position. "Jack… There's something I want to say to you."

"What is it?" Jack asked as he stared up at the ceiling.

**Cue RWBY OST - Wings**

"I…" Weiss fell short, struggling to find the words. "I want to apologize."

" . . . You'll have to be a little more specific. You have said… a _lot _of trash about me over the last two weeks."

"Listen you!" she snapped at him. "You're making this really, _really _difficult, so could you shut up for like, five minutes so I can get this off my chest?!"

" . . . I'm all ears," Jack replied after a moment's silence.

Part of him was tempted to say _'What chest?'_, but that would be needlessly cruel to a small animal.

"Jack… When you joined my team… I was far from thrilled," Weiss started, looking at the ceiling and lacing her fingers over her chest. "I'm willing to admit that if you'd been _Human_, I'd have been a bit more _receptive _to the idea of having an extra member of our team. Increase our effective military strength, broaden the range of what we could accomplish as a unit," she said letting some of her militant culture show. "But you weren't Human. You were a _Faunus_. A species that for as long as I can remember, has _tormented _my family line. Not only that, but you were part of a tribe that caused pain and suffering for so many, widows and orphans by the _thousands _left in their wake," she growled as she slammed her fists on the mattress. "Having to live with you, every, single, day, was like my worst _nightmare _come to life. The enemy of all Humankind, right next to me… and my own team welcomed him in with open arms," she said as her angry expression became downcast. "I think what hurt the most, out of everything, was the way they would open up to you, how much they _cared _about you, while keeping me, their own _teammate_, at arm's length in comparison."

"Weiss… What are you trying to apologize for?" Jack asked. "So far, all I've heard is about how much you hate my guts."

"What I'm _trying _to apologize for…" she said with a glare before deflating. "What I want… _need _to apologize for… is failing to give you the benefit of the doubt," she said casting a sad look his way. "From day one, all I ever showed you was hate, and _contempt_, simply because you were born with an extra set of ears on your head, because you were born different. You weren't even _born _during the Faunus Wars, but I treated you like a war criminal all the same," she said sighing deeply. "I'm supposed to be a Huntress, protector of man and its creations, a paragon of virtue to rise against the darkness… But all I've done is perpetuate the same hatred and contempt that's plagued our world for centuries. In a way, we're no different from Grimm, lashing out at everything that's different indiscriminately, simply because we can."

" . . . It must've been really hard for you to say that," Jack said after a minute of silence hung between them.

"And I meant every word of it," she said looking towards him. "I know… that when we first met, I snapped at you and Blake when you talked about my family's company the way you did. But I'm not an idiot. I _know_, that since my father took over the company, it's operated in a morally… _gray _area. Family friends would disappear, board members executed, an entire train car full of Dust stolen right from under our noses, and my father would come home, _furious_. That made for a very difficult childhood, and I guess I was just so eager to project all that anger onto the nearest thing that I-"

"It's alright. I know where you're coming from," Jack cut her off before she could go off into hysterics. "I know what it's like having a dad that isn't exactly '_Father of the Year' _material. And I've lost family too, so I _get _why you'd want to lash out at everything around you… even if it's just me."

"Yeah, but your mom was killed right in _front _of you, just because she was a _Faunus_," Weiss argued back. "Compared to that, I don't have the same validity to hate others the way you do."

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . She wasn't supposed to die, you know," Jack sighed tiredly after a minute's silence.

"Your mother?" Weiss asked.

"No. Not mine…" he said turning back to her. "Yours."

" . . . What are you talking about?" Weiss asked crossing her arms, wondering why Jack was talking about _her _mother of all people.

"I read the reports. That upper-crust shindig at that country club by that lake, where your mother got killed… It was meant to celebrate your father collecting on a huge insurance policy from when the Mt. Silver Dust mine collapsed… The one that buried hundreds of Faunus workers alive, and left countless orphans and widows completely destitute because your father and his Human cohorts had decided to hoard the money for themselves with a loophole and a crooked lawyer," he trailed off, remembering the story his uncle had told him while he was in Skyrim cooling his head. Word-of-mouth was the only way outside news got there, because for the most part the Nords didn't really _care _about the rest of the world. What happened outside of Skyrim simply didn't matter to them because it had no impact on their economy or way of life. "The White Fang were aiming for your _father,_ on top of the Board of Directors, but your mother acted as his shield before they could kill him off, and they had to run away because the SWAT team showed up."

"Why… Why are you bringing this up?" Weiss choked out. Every time she had asked her father why her mother had gotten killed, he would always dodge the question, give her the cold shoulder and telling her to go back to her studies while he buried himself in his work, or even say it was the fault of 'those damn dirty animals', the Faunus. She had no idea her father had provoked the Faunus community so callously like that, and Jack's expression told her that he wasn't lying about it.

Jack Braxton may've been many things, but a liar he was not. If anything, his blunt honesty was just as bad if not worse.

"Because you need to know your mother didn't have to die that day," Jack said turning to her. "I know this doesn't mean very much coming from me, but… I'm sorry. For all the people you've lost."

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't have anything to do with my mother's death," Weiss said as she closed her eyes. "But… Thank you. I appreciate the sentiment."

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"So… Where do we go from here?" Jack finally asked after a very awkward moment of silence.

"I guess… we just try to get along better, graduate from Beacon, and try to make the world a better place. For _both _out kind," Weiss answered.

" . . . Sounds good to me," Jack said crossing his arms behind his head.

" . . . Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Back then… when I stabbed you…" she said with a pause, shuddering at the memory of blood on her blade that didn't evaporate moments later. "Did you _let _me hit you?"

"It didn't hit anything important, so does it really matter?"

"As a matter of fact it _does _matter!" Weiss snapped sitting up, only to wince as pain shot through her body. "What would possess you to even _do _that? Taking a hit like that with so little Aura… You could've gotten yourself _killed_!"

"Look, Weiss, I'll admit it. I was a bit of a dick to you. Didn't really help things between us. Kinda egged you on for the fun of it…" he said manning up to his own faults. "The point is, you _needed _to get it out of your system. I've had people want to kill me before, and that look in their eyes only got worse after I beat them black and blue. Most of the time they'd get their friends involved, I'd kick _their _asses, the cycle would _repeat _itself… but that's not the point," he said shaking his head. "Point _is_, you've had that little bubble of anger and hatred bottled up for so long, if you didn't get it out of the way, it would've still been there, stopping us from working together like the team that Ruby deserves," he said closing his eye. "Now that it's gone, we can start over with a clean slate, now that we've gotten our _pound of flesh _out of one another."

"But I… I really _did _want to kill you back then… Get you out of my life forever so I'd never have to see you again," she confessed.

"And that's why you didn't hit anything important," he said flippantly. "I shifted ever-so-slightly so you'd miss that vital area between my vertebrae you were aiming for."

"So you _did _let me hit you instead of dodging!" she cried in hysterics.

"You're missing the fucking point!" Jack snapped back at her, eyes flashing red and causing her to flinch before he reeled it back in. "Weiss…" he sighed deeply. "Do you remember what you felt, when you had my blood on your hands?"

"How could I forget?" Weiss shuddered, trying to shake off the memory. "I thought it'd feel really good to give you a taste of your own medicine, make you feel the same pain you've inflicted upon so many others, but… in the end, all it did was make me want to kick myself."

"So then revenge wasn't as sweet as you thought it'd be?"

" . . . Far from it," Weiss admitted. "I'm sorry... For everything."

"Apology accepted," Jack said with a tired smile.

"So… Friends?" the heiress groused. "I know I'm not an expert on the topic, but we could talk about guy stuff if you want. Like fast cars, or ladies underwear, or-"

"Weiss, this is starting to get _really _fucking creepy," Jack said leaning back a bit. He _got _that she was trying to make the deal more appealing, he really did, but _now _things were getting just creepy.

"Sorry… I've never really had a guy-friend before. I went to a girls-only prep school, so I don't really _know _how to talk to boys my age," Weiss admitted, flushing bright red at how she was actually about to talk about 'ladies underwear'.

"Didn't your parents ever try and set you up with some nice boy from a rich family?"

"They did. And all my suitors were just a bunch of self-entitled little _twats _that were after one thing and one thing _only_," Weiss huffed angrily. Like any proud women, she absolutely _despised _being objectified, whether it was for her money or for her body. Part of why she became a Huntress in the first place. "Half the time they wouldn't even look at my face because of the scar, or insisted I get it fixed. That or advertise all these doctors who could make me _look better_," she spat in disgust at those that tried to push cosmetic surgery onto her because they thought she could use a larger chest or a more-bubbly butt.

"What about Jaune?" Jack probed.

"What _about _him?" the heiress snapped back. "He might _think _he's being cute, or charming, but he's _not_! He's just like every other guy I've had the displeasure of meeting, wanting to get with me because of my looks, or my celebrity status, or because of my money," she listed off as she crinkled her nose in disgust. "Not even five _minutes _of meeting me and he's already calling me 'Snow Angel'. Ugh."

"Fair point," Jack said nodding his head. "If it makes you feel any better,_ I_ think those scars make you look sexy, in a battle-damaged Princess kinda way," he said giving her a thumbs-up.

"Well… I will take that compliment. Thank you," Weiss replied with a smile, and a faint blush on her cheeks. _'I think this is the first time anyone's ever _complimented _me on my scar,' _she realized. _'It feels... nice.'_

"You're welcome. Sorry for opening it up again. That was my bad. Blood rage tends to mess with our head."

"Yes, well, I kinda _stabbed _you so… we're cool," she said waving it off. " . . . Does it still hurt?"

"I got impaled through my intestinal tract. Of _course _it fucking hurts," Jack snapped back as the painkillers began to wear off.

"So… I take it you aren't _into_ that kind of thing?" Weiss asked trying to make playful banter.

"Weiss. Not even _Yang _is that kind of masochistic," Jack said with a deadpan stare. "Pyrrha might be, but that's kinda up in the air because she _thanked _me for kicking the turkey stuffing out of her."

"I'm trying to make conversation here," Weiss said back.

"I know… and I'm having a great time," Jack replied. "This is certainly much better than being at each other's throats, that's for sure. Way less pressure."

"Yeah… I feel the same way too," Weiss said, feeling like a great weight had finally been lifted from her shoulders.

"So… Wanna raid the infirmary storeroom for some medical morphine?" Jack eventually groused.

"I… would _love _that," Weiss eventually replied with a smile. "But wait- I hit you with the strongest Gravity Well I could dish out. Can you even _walk _right now?"

"I'm _fine, _Weiss," Jack said waving her concerns off. "My bones have been broken and healed-over so many times before now, it's like I've got an Orichalcium Skeleton," he said rapping his knuckles in his shin.

"That really isn't something you should be _proud _of," Weiss pouted at how casually he talked about bone-breaking.

"Oh, you two are awake already," a female doctor with brown hair and green eyes said as she came in. "If you don't mind, I'd like to check your stitches, make sure everything's alright."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Meanwhile, outside Jack and Weiss' hospital room, Teams RWBY and JNPR had just come back from a quick dinner. They were reluctant to leave at first, wanting to visit their friends as soon as they woke up, but their rumbling stomachs said otherwise. A kindly nurse had told them that even _if _Jack and Weiss woke up, they wouldn't be getting out of their hospital beds until tomorrow morning at the _earliest_, and thus proceeded to chase them out of the hospital and feed themselves. Thus, they had left for dinner, ate in silence, and then promptly returned in time to see a nurse step into the room, before a different nurse stepped out as soon as they stood across from the door.

"I wonder where this hospital gets all its really tall staff members," Nora groused just outside Jack and Weiss' hospital room as a rather _tall _woman with glasses and white hair in a doctor's coat came out.

"She looked kinda lumpy," Ruby stated.

"Hey, women have all _sorts _of body-types," Yang defended her fellow female. Sure, she had a body that most women her age, or even _twice _her age, would kill to have, but she wasn't ignorant that all body types were beautiful to someone out there.

"She _does _have pretty big feet though. _And _she's barefoot," Jaune stated, since the woman that came out of the room _was _walking around barefoot.

"And the skin tone doesn't match," Nora pointed out.

"Maybe she needed skin grafts," Ruby theorized.

"It's possible," Ren said with crossed arms.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"I wonder what happened to that _other _doctor who went in there," Pyrrha groused as the tall, and lumpy, nurse hobbled her way into the supply closet.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**First and foremost, I want to apologize for the REALLY cheesy title "Like Fire and Weiss". In this "Arc of Conflict" mini-arc (or maybe it's a full-blown Arc), I tried to make the names thematic with conflict and WHO was fighting. At the time, I couldn't think of anything better than this.**

**It's been a long time in coming, but Jack and Weiss are finally opening up to one another; of course, I'm sure that most of you were simply waiting for Jack to finally put Weiss "in her place" (as some Reviewers put it) and do something about her blatant racism. Let's face facts, towards the end of Volume 1, she was **_**really **_**racist. Like, full-blown **_**race war **_**"let's lynch that dirty nigger" racist.**

**I apologize if that metaphorical statement offended any black people who might be reading this.**

**The thing about Faunus using fecal matter (i.e. their shit) to cause outbreaks of Tetanus during the war was inspired by the manga "Drifters". While some might view something so close to biological warfare as utterly deplorable, AND a violation of the real-world Geneva Convention (under the use of chemical or biological weapons in warfare because they present overly-painful, inhumane ways of death), the fact remains that Faunus were outnumbered and outgunned, and so, much like the Afgans did when Russia invaded before the Iron Curtain fell, they had to fight with every advantage they could scrounge up, lest they be deported to the ass-end of the world simply because they were different. Forced deportation in **_**itself **_**may be a war crime under the Geneva Convention, but I didn't skim over the thing to be sure.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked the fight, the history, and the dialogue. I apologize of the world-building was a bit winded, but I don't think I could've made it into Dialogue without really pushing things beyond the breaking point. Tell me what you think in Reviews, please.**

**Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, here's an extra little something. Not "fanon", more of a gag scene than anything else.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**DELETED SCENE:**

_*SMACK*_

"**Ow!"**

_*SMACK*_

"**Yipe!"**

_*SMACK*_

"**Ah!"**

_*SMACK*_

"**Gah!"**

**The moment their match started, Weiss had formed a line of Glyphs beneath her feet before flinging herself towards Jack at high speed. He then proceeded to simultaneously disarm and trip her, sending the girl tumbling through the air. Instead of hitting the ground, she instead landed atop the lap of her opponent who had moved ahead of her. **

**One hand settling on the small of her back and pinning her in place, the other flipped her lacy combat skirt upward, before that very same hand began delivering open-handed slaps to the heiress' lacy white panty-clad derriere. After the first few spanks, her glutes were beginning to grow a flushed shade of red that really made the curve of her booty stand out.**

'_**Somehow… I don't know if this is **_**better**_**, or **_**worse**_**,' **_**Glynda thought to herself as Jack continued to give the heiress the spanking she probably had coming to her. **_**'And where did that chair even **_**come **_**from?' **_**she asked as she thought about just **_**where **_**Jack had gotten that wooden chair he was now using.**

"**Get some, **_**bitch**_**!"**

"**Gyah!"**

'_**I think this is the **_**only **_**time someone has gotten a **_**literal **_**spanking at Beacon,' **_**Glynda thought to herself as Jack continued to paddle her.**

"**AHHHHN~" Weiss moaned as Jack's ministrations began turning her into a drooling mess. "More! Give me more!"**

" **. . . W****hat the _fuck_?!"**


	21. Time Heals All Wounds

'_In the end, we didn't get to visit _either _of them_,_' _Ruby pouted that evening. Team RWBY had already declared lights-out, with Yang and Blake fast asleep off to the side of the room, but after duct taping a desk lamp to her headboard, she'd been able to study behind the privacy of her curtain. _'I hope they're going to be alright,' _she thought to herself as she turned a page, studying intensely for finals.

_***Click***_

'_Hm?' _Ruby hummed as she peeked out from behind her curtain, seeing the door to Team RWBY+1's room open. "Weiss?!" Ruby yelped, Yang grumbling as she rolled over in her sleep. _"Weiss, what're you doing back here so soon?" _she whispered as she hopped down, taking a look at her teammate.

The swelling around Weiss' right eye had gone down, but her left eye was still bandaged. There were thicker bandages running all the way down her legs, and she could see more running up her arms, while others made her clothes a little baggy. Instead of her usual side-ponytail, the heiress had her hair down, her tiara clutched in her hand as she closed the door behind her. What most surprised her was the crutch Weiss had propped under her right arm.

"_Dr. Katt said I was good to go home whenever I felt like it, and I wanted to give Jack his privacy," _Weiss said as she hobbled into the room.

"_What about _him_?" _Ruby asked as Weiss made her way to the closet.

"_They said they wanted to keep Jack overnight for observation," _the heiress answered as she changed into her pajamas. _"Between his fights with Nora, and Ren, and… me, they want to make sure there isn't any underlying damage before releasing him."_

"_I see…" _Ruby whispered as Weiss made her way over to the bed, stashing her crutch underneath it as she gingerly pulled the covers over herself. _"Weiss?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Why were you and Jack fighting?"_

" _. . . "_

"_Please, I need to know… I need to know what I did wrong…" _Ruby pleaded, her eyes watering up and on the verge of tears. _"What I can do to make things better."_

"_Ruby…" _Weiss said as she gripped her bed sheets. _"What happened wasn't your fault. All that… It was on me. You didn't do anything wrong, so don't worry about it."_

_*Sniff* "Really?"_

"_Yeah, really."_

"_I see," _Ruby said nodding her head.

"_Yeah… But, listen, I'm… really tired right now," _Weiss sighed tiredly. _"We can visit Jack in the morning if that'll make you feel better. How does _that _sound?"_

" _. . . I want to make him a get-well-soon present," _Ruby said after a few moments.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_***Cock-a-doodle-doo***_

"Son of a _bitch_…" Jack groaned as he was roused from his slumber the following morning. "Who the hell keeps a fucking _rooster _so close to the hospital?" he groaned as he looked out the window, the sun just barely over the horizon. Deciding to ignore the obnoxiously-loud poultry, he looked over to his left, seeing the hospital bed empty. "Huh. I guess Weiss must've gone back to our room," he said with a shrug as he attempted to sit up. Jolts of pain running through his body now that he wasn't doped up on Morphine, he slumped back onto the bed before fumbling around for the remote. _'That reminds me for whatever reason. I wonder if anyone noticed the missing morphine packs.'_

"_Hey, there are four packets of Morphine missing from the supply closet!" _someone said from outside the room.

'_Well holy shit,' _Jack deadpanned. _'Glad we knocked that doctor and nurse out in a way that they didn't remember getting knocked out,' _he thought to himself finally finding the remote, raising himself into a sitting position as he watched the eastern sky.

The sky beyond his window was a deep shade of blue, bordering on black, the sky beyond the mountains to the east turning a lighter shade of blue as the sun began to rise. As it rose, the dark sky turned lighter blue, the stars in the sky winking out as tinges of pink and orange began to peek over the mountains in the distance. With time, the bright yellow sun in all its glory began to rise, first as a sliver of light, then a half-circle, until a brilliantly-glowing sphere of the brightest yellow rose into the heavens.

However, no words could ever convey the beauty of such a sight to one not seeing it for themselves.

Then again… it didn't really _matter_ because Jack nodded off again halfway through.

_***Click***_

The sound of a tumbler opening, Jack was once again roused from his slumber, looking sidelong to the room's only entrance. An eyebrow quirked in surprise when he saw Weiss of all people coming in, a large paper bag in her hands. Instead of her usual pale blue bolero jacket and white thigh-length dress, she was now wearing a baby blue pantsuit with a red blouse that really made her eye pop. On top of this, her hair was down, now brushed over the left side of her face, concealing almost the entirety of her injuries, while giving her a more casual, almost _relaxed _look.

Certainly a refreshing change of pace, considering she had more than a half-dozen copies of the same bolero jacket and thigh-length dress in Team RWBY's closet.

"Hello, Weiss. Didn't expect to see _you _here this morning," Jack greeted with a tired wave. They weren't _completely _buddy-buddy like she and Ruby had gotten, but at the very least they'd upgraded from the cold intolerance of one another they'd had before.

"Don't read into this too much. I just wanted the chance to talk with you in private before the others arrived," she said taking a seat at his bedside. Opening the paper bag in her hands, she suddenly drew out a knife of all things.

"Weiss… Why do you have a knife in your hands?" Jack said flexing his claws out of reflex as the morning light glinted off of Weiss' blade.

"I'm not up to anything _malicious_. You can afford to let down your guard around me," Weiss said casually; she probably thought that sounded less-malicious in her head. Setting the knife down, she put a pair of plates next to it, followed by a few perfectly-ripe apples that glistened like rubies. "As your… _friend_," she said grousing for the word she never thought she'd say, "I'm here to make sure you meet certain dietary requirements until your release."

"Oh, that's why," Jack hummed as Weiss put the first plate in her lap and began to peel the skin from first apple. It wasn't the _prettiest _job in the world, since there were big chunks of apple still on the skin as she cut it, but by the look on her face, she was putting a _lot _of effort into something she would've normally left for the hired help.

"So… About what you said yesterday," Weiss said as she began cutting slices away from the core of her first apple. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About my mom, or my dad?" Jack asked as Weiss handed him a plate of apple slices.

"Well… I'm afraid if we talk about moms, I might accidentally set you off like those _other _buffoons did, so… daddy issues it is."

"Good choice," Jack said taking a bite from the first apple slice. Juices exploding through his mouth with every bite, it didn't take a genius to know that the quality of the produce was a great-deal better than what the school itself had to offer. In all likelihood, Weiss had had this brought in from Vale proper, maybe even rush-delivered.

"Yes, well, with this commonality between you and I, I feel like I can understand you a little better," Weiss said as she began slicing into her second apple. The peel on this one was much neater, showing her aptitude for anything she put a genuine effort into doing. "So… What was your father like?"

"Don't know. I barely ever saw him," Jack said between bites. "After my mom was murdered, he changed, and probably not for the better."

"_Probably_?"

"It depends on who you ask," Jack shrugged.

"So…" Weiss groused trying to find the words. "What was your father doing that had him away from home?"

"Nonviolently fighting for equal rights before the Fang's change in leadership, getting his ass kicked because he wouldn't fight back," Jack answered plainly.

"Oh…" Weiss flinched. "Might I ask _why _he didn't fight back?"

"My mom didn't want him making things any harder for me if I ever left the Frontier," Jack said finishing a slice. "In the end it didn't matter, and I had the _privilege _of seeing the ugly side of humanity that makes genocide seem like such a good idea," he spat as he angrily bit into an apple slice, causing Weiss to flinch. "The only reason the _new _Fang hasn't started, is because your kind breeds like cockroaches. If it has a vagina, willing or unwilling, more often than not a Human will shove their dick into it. They don't even have to be _Human _and the men of your species will still try and fuck it, willing or otherwise," he said angrily as his eye flashed crimson.

At this, Weiss clammed up. She knew all too well about how Faunus were discriminated against, and up until just recently she was just like any _other _racist stereotype about Humans. By the way he said it, Jack had probably seen the absolute ugliest that Humankind had to offer. Based on how _graphic _he was being, he'd probably seen _those _kind of actions too.

"When you say _unwilling_, do you mean-"

"Rape? Yes, and _no shit,_" he said bluntly. "Before coming to Beacon, I stopped more would-be rapists than I can care to remember."

"I figured, but didn't want to assume."

"Yeah, well, in the end my actions didn't change anything," Jack said as he flexed and retracted his claws. "Every day, countless Faunus get raped, or killed, or robbed, and the police force doesn't do jack-squat about it because they're all crooked."

"I guess you've seen enough to _substantiate_ your claims, then?" Weiss asked, not knowing if she'd regret the answer or not.

"Half the rapists I beat up _were _cops. What the fuck do _you_ think?"

"Oh…" Weiss said as she began twitting her thumbs, her ideal image of Human law enforcement tarnished just a little more.

"And don't even get me _started _on the Huntsmen. They think that just because they slay monsters, they can do whatever the fuck they want. Makes me sick to my stomach how hypocritical those assholes can be," he growled as he popped another apple slice. "Hunters hired by less-than-reputable people for less-than-reputable reasons were my bread and butter before coming here."

"So… you were a Bounty Hunter I take it?" Weiss asked coming to the sensible conclusion.

"Most of the time I was a Sweeper, but yeah, I was also a Bounty Hunter."

"Might I ask the difference?" Weiss asked. She genuinely did _not _know the difference between the two, and just assumed they were both the same thing until Jack threw that "also" in there.

"Sweepers have a strict no-kill policy, either because of their moral system, or because a live target fetches better coin. Bounty Hunters kill their targets either for fun, or because the target won't come quietly," Jack answered.

"So what made you be a Sweeper?" Weiss asked. "No offense, _really_, no offense, but if there's _anyone _I think would enjoy killing for money, it'd be you."

"Since you're making such an effort to be kind to me despite my heritage-" At this he ran his fingers over his ears. "-I'll abstain from taking offense to that. As for _why _I became a Sweeper, part of it was because the money was better."

"And the other?"

"The pathetic whimpering sounds they made when I broke their legs and/or arms were _way _more satisfying than listening to them gargle on their own blood," he said with a toothy grin, his eyes glinting crimson for a few seconds.

"I see," Weiss deadpanned, resisting the urge to hurl at the mental image his words evoked. _'At least he's honest,' _she thought to herself as she sliced another apple. "Out of curiosity, how high a priority would someone like Roman Torchwick be?"

"High-B, Low-A I guess?" Jack shrugged. Seeing Weiss raise an eyebrow, he decided to elaborate. "Fairly weak criminals like purse snatchers are F-Rank, while extremely-dangerous ones like serial killers with a track record are S-Rank. Any significantly powerful Rogue Hunter normally falls under SS-Rank because conventional methods don't work on them."

"I see," Weiss hummed. "What's the highest rank you ever went after, if I might ask?"

"Well, most of the time I went after B-Rank criminals. The first time I went after an A-Rank, I almost got myself killed," Jack answered, Weiss' eyebrow shooting up in surprise at the admittance. "If my aunt hadn't been there to bail me out, I wouldn't even _be _here right now."

"On your mother's or your father's side?"

"She wasn't _technically _my aunt, but she and my mom were like sisters, so I guess my mother's side," Jack answered as he gained a distant look in his eyes. "At the time, I wasn't exactly _happy _with how she bailed me out, and I was pretty vocal about that. I told her if she'd given me a minute, I could've handled things on my _own_, and that I didn't _need _her help."

"What did she have to say about that?" Weiss asked, curious about his family and how they influenced who he was now.

"Nothing," Jack answered, the heiress raising an eyebrow at that. "She just washed my mouth out with soap bubbles."

"Don't you mean _soap_?"

"No," Jack said with a shake of his head. "Still..." he said as a smile of all things came to his face at the memory. "It may've tasted really gross, but I'd been starved of a mother's love for so long... I guess I was willing to take whatever scrap of it I could get."

"At least _you _had family willing to put that sort of effort into your upbringing," Weiss said with a small pout, looking at her reflection in the apple in her hands. "Growing up, I was always showered with words of praise and commendation, but never by my family after my mom died. No matter what I did, as long as I put some effort into it, I could become better than most. For the sake of being the best... For the sake of being a Schnee... I thought that had value. I thought my results were as expected." At this, she paused, a sour look overcoming her features as she proceeded to peel the apple in her hands. "That was what my father thought as well. _"Expected." "Just as I thought."_ He would always say those things, always walking off towards some appointment or meeting, never once looking me in the eye. Even when I was training to become a Huntress, not once did he check in on me or ask about my progress. He just left the oversight of my training to his secretary and carried on like he always did. Not once did he have time to be _disturbed by such a trifling matter,_" she all but spat. "He even had the gall to call it _selfishness_. The _nerve_!"

"Didn't you have a sister who joined the Atlesian Military's Special Operations or something?"

She wasn't aware of her father's borderline-illegal activities, so they'd never crossed paths.

"Yes. Winter. My elder sister," she heiress sighed. "For as long as I can remember, I've always been in her shadow, always following her footsteps. Anything I'd done, she'd done better and when she was _younger_ than me... Maybe that's why I wanted so badly to come to Beacon. Because I was just tired of having to live up to someone else's expectations."

"You wanted to be seen as your own person," Jack stated more than asked.

"Essentially," Weiss returned with a nod. "I don't _hate_ Winter. On the contrary, I love her with all my heart. Its just... It's just hard, always being second-best. At _everything._"

"Well, if it means anything coming from me... I think you're doing a pretty good job becoming your own person, stepping out of your sister's shadow."

" . . . Thanks," Weiss replied with a smile.

"No problem," Jack said popping another apple slice.

" . . . Let's change the subject, shall we?" Weiss asked, not wanting to talk about her family -_or lack thereof_\- anymore. "When did you first become a Sweeper?"

"Three, four years ago I guess?"

"Then that means… You were only fourteen at the youngest!" she said in shock. "Most fourteen year-olds only have a year of formal combat training by that point! Why would you go into such a dangerous line of work?!"

"Well, it's not like a guy like _me _can hold a steady job in any other occupation," Jack said lazily with a shrug as he bit into another apple slice. "No matter how much he _didn't _fight back during peacetime, it doesn't change the fact that during the last war, my dad killed a lot of people. And I mean… a _lot _of people. When people saw me, they really saw _him, _even if they didn't know _I _was _his _son, or even who _he _was."

"So your father _was _a war veteran then," Weiss said lowly.

"So was my mom, but it's not like anyone went after _her _for it or anything," Jack said biting into another apple slice.

" . . . I'm sorry," Weiss said after a moment. "I shouldn't be holding your father in contempt like that. If he hadn't fought, you'd probably be living in Menagerie right now."

"That or they would've burned it to the ground once all the Faunus were in one place," Jack said plainly. "Unlike Faunus, Humans had almost _no _reservations about going after women or children. It's why after the initial stages of the war, so many of us moved out to the Frontier, huddling together in whatever hole we could away from all the fighting until the dust settled."

"Why wasn't this in any of the history books I've read? Attacking civilians, especially women and children, is a _war crime_."

As was occupying a church. And destruction of property. And destruction of landmarks. _And _use of poison gas among other things.

"Because history is written by the winners. That's why."

"But at the end of the war there was a _ceasefire_. Menagerie was given to the Faunus as a concession after the fighting came to an end, and Faunus were allowed to stay in their respective Kingdoms while having complete freedom to do with Menagerie as they wished."

"On _paper _that may've been the case, but Menagerie was only a small loss, so far out of the way no-one wanted to put the time and effort into colonizing it themselves. Faunus were _still _the minority after the war, even _more so _because nearly a quarter of our total population got wiped out, and it's not like any of _us _have a say of what goes into the history books," Jack explained.

"How could something like that _happen_?"

"It's called Victor's Justice, where the winning side of a war gets to judge what was right or wrong in the actions of both its own troops _and _those of its enemy. In other words, by winning the war, even though the Councils _labeled _it a tie, Humanity got the ability to show themselves some favoritism in a court of law. Whether it's the punishment or lack thereof of its own troops, or writing the history books, none of what _Humans _did wrong mattered because Humans could _choose _what came to light and what stayed in the dark."

"That's… That's _horrible_!"

"That's _life_," Jack deadpanned. "Racism runs deep because Faunus don't have the numbers, or the _money_, to make their voices heard. In Vale, the police force is largely dominated by Humans, and not a single member of the Council is a Faunus. In Atlas, the police force is _exclusively _Human and supplemented by Robots, while the government, military, and schools are all controlled by the same people, none of which are Faunus. Vacuo's had the longest-standing Faunus Council-members, due to how-varied their culture was from the very beginning. Mistral on the other hand only got Faunus in its governing Council in the past couple years. Vale isn't predicted to get Faunus in its Council for another _ten_ as things are now, and in Atlas, the lack of Faunus in its Council probably won't change _ever _with how racist everyone is. Especially those with all the money and controlling interest in the economy."

"I… I didn't know things were so _bad_."

"Of course you didn't. Humans could do no _wrong _in your eyes. Probably why you got that B-minus in Dr. Oobleck's class."

"Hey!"

"Don't try and deny it," Jack deadpanned. "Part of _why _I got that A plus is _because _I mentioned Victor's Justice. It's ugly, and sickening, but it's the truth. If there was even _one _person like Oobleck in Vale's Council five years ago, maybe the White Fang would _still _be non-violent, and maybe we'd make some fucking _headway_."

" . . . You're probably right," Weiss consented. She didn't want to admit it, but Jack had solid logic and was making concise points.

"Bitch, I _am _right," Jack said crossing his arms. "Sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. Force of habit."

"I'll let it slide since I _did _stab you," Weiss sighed.

"That you did," Jack said rubbing his side "Just be glad the White Fang didn't catch wind of that. Any incident with a _Schnee _attached to it gives them all the traction they need to mobilize. And don't even get me _started _on their recruitment rates."

"I'm guessing after what happened at Mt. Silver, the White Fang got a lot of manpower, huh?"

"It was mostly orphans and widows, but yeah, you'd be correct. Any atrocity committed by a Schnee pushes more Faunus into the White Fang's arms, and the Schnee _still _think knuckling down on us is a good idea. Bunch of _idiots _if you ask me," he grumbled as he crossed his arms.

" . . . Hearing all this, it makes me wonder if maybe I _should've _taken that job back in Atlas," Weiss said as she put her knife away. "Maybe I could've changed things from the _inside_. Made things _better_."

"As sweet as a sentiment that is, there's a big hole in your logic," Jack rebuked, prompting Weiss to look at him. "Even if you _did _stay in Atlas, you wouldn't have become who you are now. You'd have been the same ignorant and racist little princess you'd been on day one. It's _because _you left, because you've been _learning_, and _growing_, that you've started to understand what's right and wrong without Atlesian propaganda filling your ears. Not even _Winter _can be a better you than _you_."

"You really think I've grown?" Weiss asked, an upward lilt in her tone.

"At the risk of sounding like every sleazy guy from those parties you told me about, I'd say you've grown in more ways than one," Jack said with a cheesy grin as he scratched the back of his head. And he really _did _mean it when he said she'd grown in more ways than once. Since she'd been eating _less _healthy at Beacon in comparison to what she'd been eating at home, that fat was adding just the _slightest _curve to her chest and hips, while her training was adding a little bit of muscle to her lithe frame. Weiss' twin sisters didn't jiggle like Yang's or Nora's, but it was progress.

"Heheheh... I don't think anyone's said _that _to be before," Weiss said as a giggle left her lips.

"Really? I'd have thought all those self-entitled little twats read through the whole _playbook _of cheesy pickup lines."

"Oh believe me, they _have_. They just weren't very _sincere _about it. Not like _you _anyway."

"Huh. Imagine that," Jack said with a shrug as he bit into another apple slice.

" . . . Do you think things will ever change? The way you say it, makes it sound like the chances of things getting any beter are really slim."

"If whoever's in charge screws the pooch bad enough, _probably_," Jack shrugged. "Mistral's going in the right direction, they just need some more time. The problem with _Vale _is that most of the Council members come from "old money", and _everyone _has their price, especially voters. As for Atlas… I figure it'd take something _really _big to make them get their shit together. Something so huge that the other Kingdoms can't ignore it anymore. Like, breaking-the-laws-of-_nature _huge."

"What about _Skyrim_? There's barely any information available about their culture that's _credible_, and you haven't really mentioned them until now," Weiss stated.

"Well for one, the Nords don't really _care_ whether you're Human or Faunus, only whether you do right or wrong by one another. Like I told Ruby, most of the Nords were originally people punished for crimes they didn't even _commit_ because the government back then was even _worse _than it is today. Every major settlement has a village chief that represents the people for a larger council, and whether they're Human or Faunus doesn't matter because discrimination by _race _is practically nonexistent. People _still _hate one another for personal reasons, but that's what happens _everywhere_. They have a natural distrust of outsiders, but given their history, can you really _blame _them?"

" . . . What is it like? Being a Faunus, I mean?"

"What's it like being _Human_?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"That came out wrong," Weiss said shrinking in on herself.

"Open mouth, insert designer boot made by Faunus under-paid labor."

"I get it, I said the wrong thing!" Weiss snapped, before sighing deeply. "And my designer boots did _not _come from a Faunus sweatshop!" she argued, the Faunus rolling his eyes at her. "What I _meant _to ask is…" she said trying to keep her cool. "What's it like having senses like you do?"

"You realize that's like asking me to describe sight to the blind, or sound to the deaf, right?"

"I know that, I'm just… _really curious_," she trailed off in a whisper.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you."

"I said I was curious, alright?" she asked a bit louder.

"There, now was _that _so hard?"

"Don't patronize me."

"Sorry, sorry," Jack said biting into another apple slice. "If you really _must _know, I _guess _it isn't all that different from how _you _perceive things. Darkness for Humans is like having the lights dimmed for a Faunus. Things don't _smell _any different, we just pick up on them easier."

"Do Faunus pick up on sound easier if they have more than two ears?" Weiss asked.

"It varies based on breed," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders.

" . . . "

"You look like you want to say something else."

" . . . I just don't want to say the wrong thing again."

"Say what you want to say, and I'll tell you if it's offensive or not."

"Can I… Can I touch them?" she asked as her eyes darted to the eyes atop his head.

" . . . You know, I honestly thought _Ruby _would be the first to ask," Jack said with a shrug. "Why do _you _want to touch them?"

"I'm just curious, alright?" Weiss asked as she shifted in her seat, a bit of red running across her face as she twitted her thumbs. "God, this sounded far less stupid in my head."

" . . . Fine, you can _touch_. But no _petting_! That's just _too _personal. _And _demeaning," he emphasized. "Doesn't really help the whole _not-an-animal _point we're trying to get across if we let Humans touch our ears whenever they want to."

" . . . "

Weiss didn't say any words, instead opting to get up from her seat and stand at his bedside. Raising her hands and trying to look non-threatening, she slowly reached out to Jack's scalp. The first thing she noticed was that his hair felt really thick, but not _hard _like she thought since _actual _Honey Badgers had fur made of keratin. After getting used to the texture, her delicate finger then went up to the ears atop his head. Pinching them lightly a couple times, then rubbing them between her fingertips, she realized that unlike the pets she'd had in the past, his ears were little more than ridges of skin with almost no muscle on them. Despite that, there was a certain warmness about them that heated up her hands a bit.

" . . . Did anyone ever tell you you look really nice with your hair down?" Jack asked after a few seconds, trying to dispel the awkward silence.

"Yeah, well… I don't let my hair down for just _anybody_, you know," she said with a small smile.

"Well look at _you _two getting all cozy like this," Yang said from the doorway, Weiss yelping as she jumped away with a red face. "Hey, don't mind me, I'll come back later. Still, I'm surprised you could be so _bold_, Weiss. I'm impressed."

"Nothing happened!"

"I didn't _say _anything happened, but now I'm really curious," Yang said with a grin on her face. "Jack, did Weiss do anything to you before I came in?"

"She touched me in places."

"JACK!?" Weiss cried with a red face while he just grinned.

"Oh-hoh, how _bold _of you, Ms. Schnee," Yang said crossing her arms under her voluptuous chest. "However, don't think I'll give up on him so easily. His chocolate-colored ass _will _be mine! All _miiine_! Mwahahaha!" she laughed exaggeratedly.

"Yaaang! Don't say stuff like that!" Ruby pouted as she came in, a bag in her hands. "Sorry about her. She can be a little embarrassing at times."

"That's just my feminine charms at work," Yang said stretching her arms above her head, making her chest puff out, and Weiss' eyes narrowing as she pouted at the display.

"It's just nice to have a little color in here," Jack said popping another apple slice. "No offense," he said turning to Weiss.

"None taken," the heiress sighed.

"Sooo… Jack, how are you feeling?" Ruby asked coming to his bedside.

"Better. A bit sore, but I'll live," he said rubbing his side.

" . . . I'm sorry," Weiss said as she shrunk in on herself.

"Dummy, I already forgave you for that," Jack said ruffling the heiress' hair. She wanted to slap his hand away, but looking up and see the scars criss-crossing his arm kept her hand firmly in her lap. If things truly _were _as bad for Faunus as Jack portrayed them to be, it didn't take a genius to find out _who _he'd gotten those scars from, and why she'd hesitate _–at least _now_\- _to lash out at him. "And Ruby, Yang, I don't want _either _of you giving her a hard time about putting me here, alright? I'm at fault too. It takes two to tango, and I did my part of egging her on too."

"I hear you. Just… Just take things easy, alright?" Ruby asked. "I don't want you fighting again until finals next week. That's an order, you hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you," Jack replied with a wave of his hand. "I'll be all healed up by then, guaranteed."

"But seriously, Weiss, were you _trying _to kill him?" Yang asked as she took the clipboard from the foot of Jack's bed and flipped through it. "There's like, five _pages _of injuries on here. I don't even know what half of these _are _and I _still _know they're bad. What the _hell_?"

"That's enough!" Jack growled as he slammed his fist on the bed's railing, shocking the room's occupants. "I already forgave Weiss for this, now _drop _it!"

" . . . Sorry, Weiss," Yang said with crossed arms.

" . . . " _***Pow* **_An elbow to the ribs caused the heiress to scowl, before she sucked up her pride and said- "I forgive you."

" . . . So…" Jack hummed to diffuse the tension. "What's in the bag?" he asked turning to Ruby.

"The girls and I all made you some get-well cookies!" Ruby said with a large grin on her face. "We made them this morning after getting some stuff from the cafeteria."

"Seems like you've got quite the fanclub back there," Blake said with a smile making her presence known. "They got really helpful when we said they were for _you_."

"Don't worry. She only ate _half _of them on the way here," she conspicuously whispered into his ear.

"I did _not_!" Ruby pouted as she rounded on her sister.

"I brought milk," Blake said with a small smile as she held up a carton of milk. "I don't know how you take it, so I just went with two-percent."

"Thanks guys. The milk and cookies will really help the hospital food go down," Jack said as Yang put an in-bed table out, setting the milk and cookies out.

"Just don't eat them all at _once_. Too much sugar is bad for you," Ruby instructed.

"I don't think _you _should be talking to him about 'too much sugar'," Weiss scolded lightly.

"Weiss!" Ruby pouted.

"I'll be sure to ration these," Jack said reaching into the bag and taking one out. The cookie was a round disk with a little thickness to it, and instead of chips, it used large chunks of chocolate, probably from a broken-up chocolate bar. It was still warm, fresh from the oven with chocolate smearing his fingers, the scent making him feel nostalgic as he stared into the circle of baked dough and chocolate.

"Is there something wrong? Did they not come out right?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"Hm? Oh! No, nothing's wrong," Jack said snapping back to reality. "Just taking it all in is all. I can't _remember _the last time someone baked me cookies like this. I'll be sure to repay the favor someday."

"What? Nooo, nonono_no_, you don't _haaave _to," Ruby tried waving him off. _"But if you _do _decide to return the favor, I like them with extra chocolate chips," _she whispered into his ear. _"Don't tell Yang. She's always such a _nag _when it comes to me and my cookies."_

"Ruby, I'm right here," Yang said with crossed arms.

" . . . You heard nothing!"

"Whoo! Sounds like there's a _party _up in here!" Nora whooped as she came into the room, a nearby nurse angrily shushing her before going back to her duties.

"Sorry we didn't get here sooner," Jaune apologized. "We were momentarily delayed."

"Oh hey, Jaune. Didn't know you were up," Jack said.

"I was up yesterday morning."

"Really? I didn't care-er-notice."

"Smooth," Weiss said, a small smile on her face.

"So, Weiss, I was wondering how _you're_ feeling today," Jaune said immediately turning his attention to the object of his affections. "If you want I can carry your books for you until you recover, maybe escort you around campus? Help change your bandages, maybe?"

"Keep one meter away," Weiss deadpanned at that last statement. He was quickly getting into creepy _stalker _territory, and it wasn't the _first _time she'd dealt with someone like Jaune. Her bodyguards had to restrain a _lot _of "super-freaks" during her brief career as a singer.

"So Jack, how are you feeling?" Pyrrha asked while Jaune slumped in defeat.

"A little sore, but I'll live," Jack said as he pounded a fist into his hand, cracking his neck before nodding his head. "I just need to limber up a little and I'll be alright."

"Just be sure you get plenty of rest," Ren stated. "If we wind up fighting during Finals, I want you at your best."

"Can do, Pancake Prettboy," Jack said giving a mock salute.

_*GAAAAASP*_ Nora gasped loudly. "How on Remnant did you know about my secret nickname for Ren that I never told to anybody?!"

"I didn't," Jack deadpanned.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . You heard nothing!" the ginger teen shouted as her teammates, especially Ren, gave her weird looks.

"That… reminds me for whatever reason," Jaune said to dispel the awkwardness around him. "Team Juniper brought you pancakes, fresh from the cafeteria" he said opening up a to-go box tucked under his arm. Jack, raising a brow and saying nothing, prompted Jaune to turn the box around and look therein. His jaw dropped when he saw that, aside from a few crumbs tucked in the corner, the whole Styrofoam Tupperware had been licked clean, nary a pancake in sight. "Nora! You ate Jack's pancakes?!"

_*GAAASP* _"_Jaune_!" Nora gasped quite audibly. "I am insulted and off_ended, _that you'd even _insinuate _I ate the pancakes we lathered with warm honey just for him! The _nerve _of some people!" she pouted as she turned on her heel and crossed her arms.

"_Honey_?" Jack deadpanned. "Oh I see. Because I'm a Honey Badger Faunus, I must love _honey_, right? That is a _vicious_ stereotype."

"You don't like honey?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course I love honey. I'm a Honey Badger Faunus, don't be ridiculous, I just don't like _you _saying it," Jack said with a half-lidded expression as Ren wiped his thumb across the corner of Nora's mouth, a drop of honey on the opposable digit.

" . . . I regret nothing!" Nora cried as she tried to leave the room, Ren holding her up by her collar causing the girl to kick out her legs. Clearly, the Mistrali teen was stronger than he looked.

"So… When do you think they'll let you come back to HQ?" Ruby asked as Nora continued to deny the allegations placed against her, even with all the mounting evidence.

"If Dr. Katt gives me the green light later, I'll probably be home tomorrow evening after dinner. You can go another day without me around, can't you?" Jack replied with a smile as he ruffled the girl's hair.

'_Home…' _The word deeply resonated with Weiss when she heard that. It made her realize just how safe he must've felt there… and how much harder she'd made things for him just like his old team had. _'And to think I used to be on _their _side,' _she said wrapping her arms around herself. _'Don't you worry, Jack. I'll try and be a better person from now on… For _both _our sakes. And Ruby's,' _she said seeing how Ruby lapped up Jack's show of brotherly love.

"Anyway, it was nice seeing you all, I appreciate the visit, but I'm still hurting a bit, so I'm going to go back to sleep, get some rest," Jack said as he reclined the bed. "Even _with _Aura _*YAAAWN*_ it'll still take me a while to get healed up all the way."

"Alright," Pyrrha said with a nod. "Get better soon."

"See you later, alligator," Nora rhymed as she skipped out, followed by Ren and Jaune.

"We'll be by again tomorrow," Ruby said with a nod as she rose from her seat.

"And we'll bring you some good food, so don't fill up on what they give you here," Yang said with a smile as she walked off.

"Take care," Blake said as she walked out.

" . . . "

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, seeing that her partner hadn't left her seat.

**Cue Star Wars OST – The Force Theme**

" . . . Jack," Weiss said as she took his hand between her own. "I know it isn't much, but let me give you what little Aura I can spare," she said as she closed her eyes. Her body was suddenly alight with a soft white glow, the light from her body slowly flowing down her arms to where hers and Jack's hand met. Looking up at her for a couple seconds as Weiss scrunched her brow in concentration, Jack nodded his head as he closed his eyes and leaned back. The next moment, Weiss' Aura began to run across his hand, turning crimson at his wrist and flowing up his arm and suffused into his skin.

Jack and Weiss' eyes opened as Ruby came up to them, putting her hands around theirs. Her body coming alight with a bright red Aura, flowing down her arms, Yang and Blake walked back into the room, standing at Jack's right side, Auras of yellow and dark purple alighting their bodies as well, their spiritual energy pooling around their hands. Looking up at his teammates, receiving nods and smiles in turn, Jack nodded his head as he laid back, the energy his friends were giving flowing into his body as he let them in, streams of red, white, purple, and yellow flowing up his arms before turning crimson and flowing into his body.

After a few minutes of silence, Jack's breathing steadied, and the flow of colored light ceased, the four slowly letting his hands come to rest at his sides. With a smile on her face, Ruby brought a finger up to her lips as she tip-toed out. Weiss followed suit, turning out the lights as she left. Blake drew the blinds shut, while Yang, with a soft smile on her face, tucked Jack in and lightly fluffed his pillow before walking away and closing the door.

"_**Thank you…"**_

"Huh?" Yang asked as she whirled around and looked back into the room. "I thought I heard a woman's voice just now…" she said to herself as she looked around. Seeing a hazy, transparent figure colored light-green at Jack's beside, Yang rubbed her eyes before looking again, only to see nothing. "Maybe I'm just _seeing_ things?" she said to herself as she walked away, the figure flittering back into sight just as the door closed.

"_**Jack…" **_the voice that Yang heard from before whispered into the air. _**"I'm sorry… that I couldn't protect you… I'm so… so sorry," **_the figure said as it brushed Jack's hair. _**"But now… there are those in your life you can truly… **_**truly **_**trust... Shoulders that you can lean upon… and be leaned upon in turn," **_it said with a relieved smile on its hazy visage. "_**Stay strong… and know that no matter what you do… that I'm proud of you… and that I'll always love you…" **_At this, Jack shifted uncomfortably in his sleep, his face scrunching, tears trickling down his cheeks. _**"Don't worry… This isn't goodbye…" **_the figure said as it lovingly stroked his cheek._** "I'm not really gone… I'm just… not here right now."**_

Moments later, the enigmatic figure faded from sight and memory, from all but a single man who had made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**DELETED SCENE:**

**'_Alright Jaune, remember what your dad said. All women look for is confidence,' _Jaune told himself as he made his way to hospital room #356 ahead of everyone else so he'd get there the moment visitation hours started. _'And what could be more confident than a bouquet of white roses and a box of get-well chocolates?' _he asked keeping the aforementioned goodies behind his back.**

**Just as he was about to knock on the door, Weiss' voice came out in a whisper from the other side of the door. Though there was a degree of sound-proofing to the rooms, if you pressed your ear _right _up to the door, you'd be able to hear what was being said within.**

**"_Hey Jack."_**

**"_Yeah, Weiss?" _**

**"_I just want to say… thank you for what you did for me the other day. I really needed that."_**

**"_It was no big deal. It's not like I haven't done that sort of thing before, and you looked like you needed something to take the edge off."_**

**"_Though that may be the case… I had a _really_ good time yesterday, so… Thank you, for taking care of me like that."_**

**'_No… No... Don't rush to conclusions, Jaune,' _the blond told himself as he processed the heiress' words. _'They could be talking about a game or something they played the other day. I mean it isn't like the two of them would ever-'_**

**"_On the off-chance we ever do something like _that _again… _I _want to be on top next time," _Jack went on to reply.**

**" _. . . I don't see the harm in letting you be on top," _Weiss returned, causing Jaune's heart to stop in his chest. _"I might not be all that strong, but I'll try my best if we ever _do _do what we did the other day again."_**

**"_I look forward to the opportunity. I'll be sure to be gentle like you were with me."_**

**"_Well… My thanks in advance."_**

**"_You're welcome… in advance."_**

**'_How… How could this have happened… and why _him _of all people?' _Jaune thought to himself in shock on the verge of tears.**

**"There you are, Jaune!" Nora's boisterous voice called out, a nearby nurse shushing her. "Sorry," she apologized. "Anywho, you went off on your own pretty quickly."**

**"Jaune, is something wrong?" Pyrrha asked, the rest of Team JNPR coming up to them. Team RWBY were only momentarily delayed.**

**"No… Nothing's wrong…" the blond slumped.**

**"Really? Because you look like you just found out the love of your life had sex with someone else instead of _you_."**

**"Uuuuugh…"**

**"So… Might I ask who the chocolates are for?" Pyrrha asked seeing the bouquet of white roses and heart-shaped box of chocolates in Jaune's hands. She already had an _idea _of who they were for, but it didn't hurt to make conversation.  
**

**"No one…" the blond deadpanned, sounding like he didn't want to talk about it.**

**" . . . _Oooooh_, _I _see how it is," Nora said nodding her head in understanding. "How very progressive of you."**

**"I'm sure he'll appreciate the sentiment," Ren stated, following along with Nora's joke.**

**"I don't think Jack plays for the same _team_, but who _knows_, he might just give you the time of day."**

**"Or a reacharound," Ren chuckled.**

**"I hope so," Jaune sighed only hearing _half _of that, Pyrrha reeling back in shock, while Ren had a WTF look on his face, and Nora was grinning widely.**

**" . . . "**

**" . . . "**

**" . . . "**

**" . . . Wait, what?"**

**"Oh look, it's Team RWBY!" Nora said pointing to the color-coordinated team down the way.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Since Weiss opened up about her daddy-issues last chapter, I figured I'd stick with the momentum and have some more character elaboration between herself and Jack. I've revealed some more hints and clues about Jack's backstory, but there's still more to come. Chapter-after-next is Jaunedice, and then things get REALLY crazy as I step into new territory.**

**Also, on note of RWBY Volume 3 Episode 11 "Heroes and Monsters", am I the **_**only **_**one who thinks Jaune screwed the pooch on that one, or is everyone cool with him abandoning his post like that? I mean, Ozpin gave him one job to do, **_**one**_**, and the moment Pyrrha starts screaming the guy turns his back on the only way in/out of that vault, and not even five seconds later Amber takes an arrow to the… **_**sternum**_**, I guess? I mean, I had my **_**suspicions **_**that somehow Jaune would muck things up {Insert dumb blond stereotype}, but I didn't think he'd mess things up THAT badly. I mean seriously, if he'd **_**kept **_**staring at the elevator doors, he'd KNOW that Cinder was coming, and maybe he could've even saved Amber.**


	22. How I Got These Scars

It was the following morning, and thankfully, whatever rooster had roused him from his slumber the day prior was now gone, allowing him to rest in peace until the sun's rays peaked over the horizon, striking him in the face through the blinds. It was actually quite peaceful, and aside from his more-recent injuries aching more than all others as he moved, everything was good.

The day was new, the sun was bright in the sky, and though the last week of the first block started tomorrow, the Faunus had a good feeling about it, now that the turmoil between himself and Weiss had died down, even if only a little. The next block he'd be with Team RWBY from the beginning, a fresh start, one where he wouldn't have to put up with the rest of DIRJ any more than necessary.

Come to think of it, had Ozpin _known _that would happen, hence the name Dirge?

Looking away from the outside, and satisfied that there were no eyes on them, he closed his eyes as he withdrew into himself, readying for an exercise he'd done whenever he was alone. Something that helped reinforce his sense of self, make him feel like he wasn't a prisoner trapped within a cage of wrent flesh.

'_Good and evil… Strength and weakness…' _he intoned as he inhaled through his nose, before exhaling through his mouth, relaxing as he gathered his Aura. Though his eyes were closed, he knew instinctively that there was now a pinprick of crimson light floating above his palm, like a star in the distant sky bathing him in its warmth. Lightly curling his fingers, the pinprick of light did not grow intensity, but instead in size, to the size of an orange, glowing like the setting sun.

'_The power to accept everything as it is…'_ he intoned once the sphere had fully formed. He then willed it to spin, faster and faster until it attained a disc-like shape. Streamers of light began to fly off of the edges, the concentration of Aura beginning to shrink, steadily growing darker, and darker, until there was nothing left but a near jet-black concentration of Aura, like a ping pong ball that siphoned away whatever light struck it.

'_And swallow it up!' _he roared out as his eyes snapped open, raising up his palm and closing his fingers around the knot of Aura with a deafening _***CRUNCH***_, jet-black rays of light gushing out the gaps between his fingers. A swell of power flooding his body, the pain of his injuries began to disappear, almost as though they were never there. In the place of pain, a chilling, but _familiar_ coolness swept away the warmth, tremendous power coursing through his every pore.

"Good to know I haven't gotten rusty," he said taking in the state his arm was now in, curling his fingers and turning his hand over at the wrist. "Spool-up time's a bit sluggish, but I always worked better under pressure," he said flexing his arm.

_***Knock*Knock***_

"_Jack, are you in there?"_ Ruby's voice came from behind the door.

"_We got you breakfast!" _Yang called out.

"J-J-Just a second!" he panicked, not wanting anyone to see his arm at _that _particular moment. "I'm naked!" he said quickly ducking into his bed and throwing the covers over his chest. _'C'monc'monc'mon… YES!' _he whooped as the coolness once more gave way to warmth. "Okay! I'm decent!"

"Morning, Jack!" Ruby said exuberantly as she walked into the room, a to-go box that smelled just _wonderful _in her hands, the others carrying like-boxes under their arms. "How'd you sleep last night?"

"Fine. Fine. Don't know how to feel about the me-shaped indent already in the bed, but apart from that I'm fine," he said putting the girl's worries at ease.

"So… What were you doing before we got here?" Yang asked.

"What was I doing?"

"What were you doing?"

"Oh… You know… Stuff," Jack said slowly.

"Really? What _kind _of stuff."

"Oh, you know… Guy stuff," he said lamely. _'Guy stuff? Really? That's the _best _I could come up with? Come on, brain! Get it together, man!' _he raged at himself.

"Huh… Guy stuff," Yang hummed. "I didn't know _choking the chicken _was part of your prescribed treatment," she said with a mirthful chuckle, Weiss gawping at her vernacular while Blake held in a chuckle.

_*GASP* _"You have a _chicken _in here?!" Ruby gawped. "Where is it? I _love _animals!"

Had any of Team (R)WBY been drinking anything at that point in time, they would've spit-take all _over _one another.

"Um… Ruby?"

"Yes, Jack?" Ruby asked with wide, innocent eyes.

"We were talking about a _metaphorical _chicken," the Faunus replied.

" . . . Oh," Ruby replied, sounding a bit disappointed.

" . . . You want me to take you to the zoo sometime? Maybe see the petting zoo?"

" . . . I'd like that," Ruby admitted.

"Say 'thank you', Ruby," Yang said lightly ribbing her sister.

"Thank you, Ruby," the girl parroted.

"Yes, well… _guy stuff _aside…" Weiss said as she rubbed her temples. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Jack replied as he accepted the to-go box from Ruby's hands, opening it up to find scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon. "Thanks, Ruby. Hospital food's the pits."

"The nutritional value of your meals is _more _than adequate. The loss of a little flavor is an acceptable loss," Weiss said in defense. If only because Atlas had a hand in the manufacture and distribution of ready-to-make hospital meals across the world. "Here. You'll need to eat a balanced diet if you want to avoid getting fat," she said passing him a bag filled with apples.

"Another batch of Ruby Red Apples, eh?" Jack said looking into the bag. "These look like they're Capture Level 10. These must've cost a pretty penny."

"Hmph. To someone like me with access to the wholesale market, 'tis naught but pocket change," the heiress said haughtily as she flipped her hair, whereas everyone else was trying to catch up with the vernacular.

"I figured," Jack said biting into one, juices exploding in his mouth as his molars broke apart the exocarp within. "I will admit, of all the things you could've used daddy's money on, this is one of the better uses," he said taking another bite, each one like a gulp of fresh-squeezed apple juice. The skin itself also had a refreshing, crunchy texture that burst into its own distinct flavor, which strangely enough was like cinnamon, but didn't overwhelm the apple flavor.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Ruby asked.

"Well, I can't do much until Dr. Katt signs me out," Jack answered. "Until then I guess I'll just-"

"Study for Finals like everyone else," Weiss said dropping a schoolbag into his lap. "Just because you're injured doesn't mean you're excused from your academic responsibilities. And I will _not _let you drag our Team's GPA into the ground now that it has to be split five ways instead of four."

"You realize _you're _the one who put me in this bed in the first place, right?" he returned with a raised brow, the heiress having the decency to blush. "Don't worry. I stopped holding it against you as soon as the fight ended, so you don't have to feel guilty about it anymore," he said patting her on the head, much to the amusement of her peers.

"Hmph," she pouted with her arms crossed as she looked away, but decide to let it slide. It may not've been the most _respectful _gesture she could've asked for, but at the least he wasn't _petting _her, or god forbid calling her something corny like "Snow Angel" or even "Snow Bunny" in a transparent attempt at getting in her good graces. _And _her panties.

Last suitor who tried petting _her_ "snow bunny" found themselves kissing the business end of an Hors D'oeuvre tray… and hot soup splashed in his eyes… a salad bowl over the head… got smacked _upside _the head with a dead fish… bitch-slapped by meat… maimed by the main… got dessert shoved down the front of his pants… before having the drink shoved up his ass.

Most expensive, _and delicious_, beat-down ever. Of all time.

Bet the guy wasn't expecting _that _kind of three-way between him and the Schnee heiresses, huh?

"Don't worry, Weiss," Jack replied, the heiress relieved he wasn't calling her _Weisscream _anymore. "I'll be sure to study up and do Team RWBY proud. I figure I owe you all that much."

After that, everyone on Ruby+1 enjoyed a lively breakfast together, chatting about what had been missed during their patient's respective hospital stay. Nothing much happened since it was only a couple of days, other than the sighting of another freakishly-tall nurse. All their breakfast finished up, Weiss shooed everyone out of the room so they could get back to studying, leaving Jack to his thoughts as he cracked open a book and got to studying.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hrrmmm…" Ruby grumbled as she looked up from her work and back at the door for the hundredth time that way. Even the _grumble _was the same.

"What's wrong, Ruby?" Yang asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"I'm just wondering when Jack will get back," she said as she looked out the window. "Dinner's going to end soon, so he should've been _back_ by now."

"Ruby, you might have to accept the fact that Jack _won't _be coming back home today," Weiss replied, the hurt look on Ruby's face showing just how _much _she wanted her brother-figure back. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be back after class tomorr-"

_***Click***_

All eyes turning to the door as the tumbler opened, the door's hinges creaked through the room. Stepping through the threshold was Jack, wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing when he'd fought Weiss, bloodstains and all. The only difference was that instead of the thick patch of gauze over his left eye, he now had a black eyepatch, one strap going around the right side of his head, while two steps went around the left side of his head over and under his side-ear, meeting in a knot at the back. Just underneath the eye patch, the rest of his new cross-shaped scar was visible, still a little red, but otherwise sealed back up.

"Hey Weiss," Team RWBY+1's black-haired member grouped.

"Yeah?"

"Don't choke on your designer _boot_," Blake chuckled, the heiress' cheeks puffing out at the "open mouth, insert foot" joke she'd just been the butt of.

"Jack! You're home!" Ruby cheered as she scrambled out of the bed and ran at Jack, wrapping her arms around his midsection. Jack cringed in pain, both from the hug and being slammed into the door, but he paid it no mind as he pat the girl on the head.

"Hey, Ruby. It's nice to see you too," Jack said with a pained grin as he extricated himself from her grip.

"Jack, I'm so glad you're all healed!"

"Um… Actually… I'm not…" Jack deadpanned as he pulled his left hand away from his side, his palm, _and_ shirt, stained bright red.

"Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry!" Ruby cried, realizing she'd re-opened his wound not even five _minutes _after getting back home.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Jack said mussing up her hair before going to his bed and digging around underneath it, his butt sticking up in the air as he searched. "I'm used to stitching myself up after breaking stitches. This'll be a quick fix."

'_Dat ass,' _Yang thought with a perverse grin before Jack's words dawned on her. "Wait what?"

"Jack…" Ruby said nervously as her Faunus teammate fished out a busted-up first aid kit. "What did you mean by that last part?"

"Ummm…" Jack said nervously at being put on the spot. "I'm going to go take a shower!" he said zipping into the closet, a bathrobe and toiletries tucked under his arm as he zipped out the room. Were he _actually _Ruby's brother instead of a surrogate, there'd be rose petals drifting behind him. Or maybe leaves like a Ninja Leaf Shroud.

"Huh. Looks like _he _dodged a bullet," Blake hummed as she turned a page in her book.

"Yeah, he seemed a bit… _off_," Weiss commented. Sure, it'd be _easy _to assume he'd learned to patch himself up in his time as a Sweeper, but somehow, she felt there was something _more _to it than that. Otherwise, why would he have dodged the question?

"Well, I know what _I'm _doing this evening!" Yang said with a grin as she went into the closet, coming out with a yellow bathrobe and some toiletries tucked under her arm. "I'm going to _interrogate _him!"

"You just want to see what Jack looks like without his shirt on," Weiss deadpanned.

"Amongst _other _things," the blond chuckled perversely as she turned the door handle.

"Yang, _gross_!" Ruby squawked as the blond zipped away.

"Doesn't she know the bathrooms aren't co-ed?" Weiss asked as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Somehow, I don't think that'll be an issue," Blake added as she turned her attention back to her book. You see, there was a certain unspoken _rule _at Beacon, relating to the egalitarian principles that most of Remnant operated under; at least when it came to _Humans _anyway.

Locker rooms and dorm rooms were shared by both sexes, and while there _were _shower rooms for each gender, the egalitarian principle _did _in fact extend to each one; the gender-signs were just a formality, but there was a hidden double-standard. While women could walk into the men's shower room at their leisure, typically for the purpose of team-building, it wasn't true on the inverse. In a school where four out of every five girls could kill a man with their bare hands, and the remaining one could do so with nothing but a _pencil_, men going into the _women's _locker room was a very bad idea.

A double-standard to be sure, but it wasn't like the world wasn't filled with those already.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Slowly, ever so carefully, Yang tiptoed into the men's communal restroom at the end of the floor, careful not to make a sound as she appraised her surroundings. Just past the door on the left were bathroom stalls and a couple urinals, sinks with soap dispensers across from them. Past that was a small room with benches and open cubbies, and beyond _that _was the showers. The tiles were a neutral shade of beige, whereas the tiles in the women's room were an off-shade of pink. Apart from the urinals, the layout was almost identical.

Yang also noted that while it _was _the guy's room, it was actually pretty clean. Then again, since everyone had their _own _bathrooms, the communals may not've seen that much use?

'_Infiltration, successful,' _Yang thought to herself as she sidled up against the partition separating the restroom from the shower. Listening around the corner, the sound of running water could clearly be heard from the showers, a bit of steam in the air. _'Target Lock: Initiating next phase.'_

Shedding out of her clothes and putting on her bathrobe, the blond stealthily tiptoed into the showers, humming a spy-tune as she went. _'There's no way Jack can say 'no' to a little skinship with yours truly.'_

Jack was in the far-left shower stall, the sound of running water hiding the sound of Yang's footfalls as she tiptoed across the water-laden tiles. The steam was thick in the air, and Yang noted that the door to the shower stall was unlocked. Probably because Jack didn't think anyone would bother him.

'_All the better for me,' _Yang thought as she squeezed through the open door, careful not to move the hinges as she snuck her way in. Just beyond the door there was a bench on the right, a pair of hooks on the left, on one of which Jack's bathrobe was hanging. And beyond the semi-opaque curtain, was her objective, veiled in a cloud of steam.

"Hello, Yang," Jack's voice called out the moment her fingers wrapped around the edge of the curtain.

"Uh… _Hey _Jack," Yang greeted nervously at being caught. "I was… hoping to _surprise _you. Figured you could use some help washing your back… and all…" she said weakly. She was _really _banking on him not noticing her until there was nowhere left to run.

" . . . _Really_?" the Faunus behind the curtain asked skeptically as he ceased scrubbing, suds whirling down the drain between his feet. "Helping wash my back is the _best _you could come up with?"

"It… sounded less stupid in my head," the blond admitted as she scratched the back of her head.

" . . . You must really want to see what _caliber _I'm packing if you're sneaking into the guy's showers," he chuckled, a tired edge to his voice.

"Well, you know the saying… Curiosity killed the cat."

" . . . Was that a pussy joke, or do I just have a dirty mind?"

"Can't it be _both_?" Yang chuckled coyly. "Don't worry. _I'll _help you get clean," she said slowly edging the curtain open, the clinking of shower curtain rings sounding in tandem with her heartbeat as she neared her goal, only for a clawed hand to grab her wrist, stopping her short.

"Yang… I'm not going to lie to you. You're in the thick of it right now, and you're nearing the point of no return. If you don't want your perception of me to change, I'd suggest turning around and going back to the room. We can both pretend this never happened, because what you're going to see beyond this curtain, you can't _un_-see."

"Aw c'mon Jack, _I _don't care if you're a small-caliber. It's not the _size _of the gun, it's how you uuuuuuse… it…" she trailed off at the sight that greeted her when she threw the curtain open. And _not _for the reasons she was expecting.

The curtain pulled aside in full, revealed that Jack was completely in the buff, as was expected of a guy in the showers, with a muscular build that was a cross between the lean of a swimmer and he bulky of a boxer; or maybe a wrestler. Not too big, not too small, but _juuuuust _right. She knew he had scars on the backs of his hands and arms, but her eyes went wide as across his exposed body she counted scars by the _dozens_, all along his arms, legs, and chest ranging from slashes to stabs to bullet wounds. The wounds he got from Ren and Weiss were covered up in gauze with a waterproof plastic covering, keeping the wounds from getting wet.

He was facing slightly to the left, so she also noticed that the carpet matched the drapes, and he was fairly well-endowed for someone only at half-mast.

**'Crisis averted. Giggity-giggity-aaaaall riiiight.'**

'_Quiet, me!' _Yang's sensible side shouted at her more-perverse side.

But what kept drawing her attention beyond that of his _attributes_, were the plethora of angry scars criss-crossing his _BACK_! They were so numerous she could scarcely tell where one scar started and the next began, his back from his shoulder blades to his waist a veritable _road map _of pain and suffering. The sort of thing that if he went to a beach topless, would have people of weaker constitutions emptying the contents of their stomachs into the sand.

Flashbacks to history class at Signal came to the fore, bile threatening to rise past her lips as images from the era of slavery immediately came to mind. It was meant to be for shock-value, to ensure that the mistakes of the past never repeated themselves, and _man _was it doing a good job if the dread welling up in her stomach so many years later was any indicator.

"Jack, what… what _happened _to you?" the blond gaped wide-eyed as she braced herself against the wall for support, the angry mesh of scars across his back drawing her in, unable to pull away her gaze.

"Exactly what it _looks _like," he said jabbing a thumb at the scars blanketing his back. "I warned you," he said tiredly as he turned away from her, the hot water of the shower running down his skin, while Yang's blood ran cold as she drank in the sight before her.

"How… and _when_…?" she gawped like a fish out of water

" . . . "

"Please, Jack…" she said reaching out to him, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "_Talk _to me," she pleaded with as much emotion as she could eke out. "Please…"

" . . . Do you _really _want to know?" he asked looking over his shoulder at her.

"Of _course _I want to know!" she answered, anger seeping into her tone as her eyes flashed red. "Otherwise I won't know whose _teeth _to punch in for doing this to you!"

She was distinctly aware that at that very moment, were she there, Nora would've suggested breaking the legs of whoever subjected Jack to that kind of torment. And she was ALL FOR IT!

" . . . Fine. Since you went through all the trouble of coming in here, I guess I can tell you," Jack sighed after a minute's contemplation. "However, I want you to promise me something."

"Anything," Yang breathed out without a moment's hesitation. Any thoughts of taking in the _landscape _had long-since left the forefront of her mind.

"You listen to what I have to say, up until the very end, and you promise _never _to tell anyone about this. _Especially _not Ruby."

"Why not her _specifically_?" she found herself asking.

"Because she'd realize there _aren't _people in this world worth saving, people that _don't _deserve to live _'happily ever after'… _People who don't _get _to… And knowing that… it'd completely destroy her. Shatter her ideal world in an instant and utterly break her spirit."

" . . . I understand," Yang said with a nod. Ruby was growing up, that was true, but as a sister, half-sibling status be damned, she was going to fight tooth and nail to protect her innocence for as long as she could. Unless the girl's future-boyfriend-even-if-she-didn't-know-it-yet Arthur was involved in hypothetical loss-of-innocense. But she'd protect the girl from everything else. "My lips are sealed."

" . . . Alright," Jack sighed, running his hands through his hair before taking a seat on the bench to the right that Yang hadn't noticed until just then.

Without a word, Yang took the spot beside him, the only sound being that of the hot water running in front of them. The two of them were practically shoulder-to-shoulder, buck naked, but she couldn't even _enjoy _it because the tired look in his eyes rivaled that which her father had after Summer died, when he'd all but completely shut down.

"You should probably know… I wasn't always strong," he began. "When I was a kid, I was timid… weak. I _hated _the idea of senseless violence, and when my dad taught me the basics of how to fight… how to kill… it made me sick to my stomach," he said interlacing his fingers together, his grip tightening until Yang put a hand atop his own. "My mom and I… We lived out on the Frontier, away from the Kingdoms and everyone else, living off the fat of the land, hand-in-hand with nature. It was a simpler time… A _happier _time…" he said with a smile on his face. "But… those happy days didn't last forever."

**Cue Naruto OST – Sadness &amp; Sorrow**

"I remember that day like it was just yesterday…" he began tiredly, the life completely leaving his eyes as past memories came to the fore. "It was winter, just after my ninth birthday… My father had left the day before to fight for equal rights when the White Fang was still a peaceful organization. That's when our home was attacked, by men in black hoods, carrying swords and guns… They had us completely surrounded, and help wouldn't come. We were completely isolated."

"What happened after that?"

"I… I choked… I could've helped fight them off, but I didn't… I was too damn _weak_!" he growled as he fisted his hair. "I couldn't remember anything I'd learned… I could barely move, I was so scared… So my mother hid me away in the basement, and went off to fight them on her own."

"Wait, if she put you in the basement, where was your _sister _when all this happened?" Yang asked.

"About six months away."

"I asked _where _she was, not when she was going to be-"

And at that moment, the reality of what happened hit her over the head like a lead weight, the color draining from her face and her eyes went wide.

"That's right… My baby sister… she didn't even get to be _born_," he said as tears began to trickle down his face. "My mother and my sister both died that day… And it was all my fault! I couldn't do a god-damned _thing_!" he growled as he got up and punched the wall across from him, eyes glowing a baleful red, while motes of Aura began to rise out of his scars like embers. "I couldn't save them… so maybe what happened next… was what I deserved…"

"That isn't true! You were _nine_! They had swords and guns! There wasn't anything you could've done!"

Is what Yang wanted to say… But she was so horrified about what had happened, she couldn't make any words come out. She'd only heard about Summer's death _after _the fact. But Jack… He _saw_ it happen… He was _there_… And all the pain he'd been holding in, had started on that day nine years ago.

She realized then and there, he'd been carrying something far heavier than anyone else on her Team had.

"I remember it so clearly… The sounds of gunfire… The fighting… The smell of blood in the air… By the time they came to get _me_, there were only nine of them left… Less than half of what they'd come with," he continued as memories of him flailing against his captors came to mind. "When I saw what they'd done to my mother… her blood in the snow… I lashed out, clawing out one of their eyes before they beat me within an inch of my life. After that…" he said as he rubbed at his neck. "The next time I woke up I was in a cage, dressed in rags, an iron collar around my neck."

"Wh… Wh… Why would they _do _that? Attack you in your home and kill your mother! _Why_?" Yang raged, tears streaming out of eyes that flickered between crimson and lilac.

"Why else. _Money_," Jack spat. "Money makes the world go round, and behind closed doors, slaves can net in enough money to set a man for years at a time."

"Sl… Slaves…?" Yang gawped, her eyes going impossibly wide. In her mind's eye, she saw a much younger Jack; scrawny, beaten black and blue, blood dribbling down the side of his face, a collar around his neck and a shackle on his ankle with a chain trailing behind him. "But slavery's _illegal_! It's been banned for _decades_!"

"Something being illegal never stopped people from breaking the law _before_…" Jack said as he rolled his eyes. "Even now I can still see it. The stage lights bearing down on me, dozens of people bidding ridiculous amounts of money for the right to _own_ me, do whatever they wanted to me… the weight of that collar pulling me down… sapping my energy…"

Whatever preconceptions Yang had about the source of Jack's strength became darker and darker with every passing moment. Looking closely at his neck, she could actually _see _the coarseness of the skin there, though his complexion did a good job of hiding it. Many would mistake it for simple chaffing, but _now_… now she _knew_.

"I never learned the name of whoever it was that bought me, and the bastard always hid behind a mask whenever he came down to wherever it was he'd been keeping me. The food I got wasn't all that great, and most of the time I'd waste away to nothing before getting a decent meal. Not enough to grow, but just enough that I'd live to suffer another day."

"Why would he _do _such a thing…?" Yang asked. She tried putting a face to whoever bought Jack and treated him like a slave, but whenever she tried, all she could see was a monster worse than any Grimm. Grimm were evil by _instinct_, but humans did evil by _choice_. Sometimes, it was easy to forget who the _real _monsters could be.

"For some self-indulgent sense of revenge, why else?" Jack asked rhetorically. "Every once in a while I'd find myself chained up against the wall, and he'd _whip _me, going on and on about how my kind killed his brother or something, and said if he couldn't take it out on his killer, he'd just have to take it out on _me _instead. The only reason I'm still alive is because his _butler _or whoever came down and stitched me back up, even if he had to tranq me half the time so he could do it."

"Well… _hey_… At least you had _one _friend down there…" Yang said trying to make the best of a terrible situation.

"He wasn't my friend. The fact that I lived as a slave for so long… was proof that he was compliant to the whole thing. That guy may've kept me fed and in health, but he was a monster all the same. And I'll never forgive _either _of them. Not for as long as I live," he growled.

"…What happened next?" Yang asked. Jack looked up at the wall across from him, and she could practically _feel _the mood shift around her, the scars across his body once more becoming alight like embers as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

**Cue Naruto Shippuden OST – Experienced Many Battles**

"One day, I was gassed in my cell, and when I woke up, I was… somewhere else," he began, his grip tightening as his jade-colored eyes bled to crimson in anger. "I found myself in a small cage with only a single window. When I looked out… I saw some kind of… _arena_. But not like the ones here at Beacon. They were like the gladiator pits you'd find in the western half of Mistral, only… there wasn't any sunlight, and everything reeked of blood. And that's when I saw it… The hell I'd have to wade through for the next four years…"

"What… What did you see?" The fact that Jack had been auctioned off as a Slave in his youth was world-shattering for her. She wasn't really _sure _if she could handle "the truth". But she'd asked for it, gone out of her way to squeeze it out of him, and she was going to swallow every last drop.

"**Okay, now I **_**know **_**you have a dirty mind."**

"**Quiet, bluetard!"**

"I saw Faunus… and Humans… They were… They were _killing _each other… All for the entertainment of the privileged masses," he growled, the glittering sea of jewels and silk and other fineries above the blood-stained pits appearing in his mind's eye. "I didn't know it at first, but my _master_," he spat with venom, "had decided that if he couldn't break me, he'd make some money off of me by throwing me into the Killing Bites."

'_Killing Bites?' _Yang thought, wondering where she'd heard that said before. After rummaging through her memories, of all the places she'd gone to trying to find her mother, the dots began to connect to one another, and she balked- "The Killing Bites?! I thought that was a _myth_!"

"Well they weren't, and I've got the scars to prove it," he said jabbing a thumb at his left pectoral, where a large stab wound running parallel with his ribs lay. "I can still remember it like it was yesterday… The roar of the crowd… the people calling out for blood. Whose blood didn't matter, they simply wanted suffering to revel in, to make money off of…"

"…What happened?" Yang asked, knowing deep down, she was going to regret the answer.

"I _learned_. I learned that in the Killing Bites, it was kill or _be _killed. I…" he said looking down at his hands, which in his mind's eye had now become much smaller, claws extended and stained in red, a cooling corpse with its throat ripped out at his feet in place of bathroom tiles. "I took my first life that day… The first of many_… many _lives," he sighed as he clenched his fists, Yang gasping in horror at his side, wide-eyed as she digested what he said.

"Wh… Wha… Why would they _do _something like that?!" Yang balked.

"Why else? For _money _of course," Jack spat. "There's big money in watching Slaves kill one another; sometimes against their will, sometimes they revel in it. The only reason I survived that first fight… was because my opponent wanted to make a big show of butchering the _fresh meat_."

"_Oh my god…"_ Yang gasped as her eyes grew impossibly wide.

"During the next four years, everything my father, my uncle, and my godfather taught me was put to the test, every lesson they drilled through my thick skull keeping me alive, all so I… so I…" he growled as his eyes glowed a baleful red, his fangs growing within bared lips as Aura wafted off his clenched fists. "All so I could _kill _that man!" he growled as his eyes glowed a baleful red, his fangs bared.

Yang had never _seen _Jack so murderous, and when the whites of his eyes turned jet black, she thought he'd busted a blood vessel or something. However, after rubbing her eyes, they'd already bled back to golden amber, his fangs less pronounced, though the rage was still present in his eyes, and his posture.

"Every scar was a lesson, every battle a test of what I'd learned. Fighting life-or-death battles had become commonplace for me, and even with my Aura sealed… I still managed to pull through, live to see the next day, even if it was mired in blood," he said rubbing at where his Slave Collar had once been. "Eventually, I stopped keeping track of how many wounds I got, or how much I bled, or even how many lives I took. All that mattered was living, all for the sake of revenge…"

Yang wanted to refute him, say that revenge wasn't the answer. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of any _other _way to get back at them. If these people really _could _get away with slavery behind everyone's backs, then they'd spend millions covering their tracks, or bribing people to look the other way. In this instance, and many others, revenge really _was _the only way they'd get their comeuppance.

"Those four years… They're all blended together now… And during those four years, four times over, I found myself standing atop a mountain of corpses… The last-man-standing in the Killing Bites' Destroyale… Treating that travesty like it was some kind of _game_. Some kind of _sporting event_!"

_**"Hmph. Four Years' Mistrali Regional Champion. Let's see how you measure up!"**_

'_No wonder he beat Pyrrha so easily…' _Yang thought as the pieces began to fall into place. _'Pyrrha's only fought for sport, but Jack… Jack's fought with his _life _on the line… There's no way someone like Pyrrha could take him on. Not with that kind of experience under his belt,' _she thought drinking in the sight of his scars, the teen to her right being replaced in her mind's eye by a Faunus child covered in blood. _'And all that time, he didn't even have his _Aura_… I guess I never thought of what it'd be like to fight without it,' _she realized. _'Or the pain, and helplessness, that people without it must feel.'_

"Right at the end of the fourth Destroyale, the nightmare… it finally came to an end, when their blood-stained house of cards came crashing down,," he said interlacing his fingers together under his nose, a smile on his face. "I don't remember _everything _that happened, because that final fight was the hardest I'd fought in those whole four years… but when I woke up again, my shackles and my collar were gone, my wounds tended to. I was _free_," he said as a Glasgow grin pulled at his features. "Those rich assholes threw everything they had at me and I _still _came out on top!"

'_Wait a minute… If that was just his life up until he was thirteen… what about the _rest _of his life?' _Yang realized. Ruby would go on about how he'd spent a year in the frigid land of Skyrim, fighting wild animals and the like. but that still left a huge gap between the past and the present.

**OST END**

"And that's the story of how I got my scars," Jack said waving his hand in a dismissive matter, bringing the story to an end. "I don't really care whether you believe me or not. In fact you're probably thinking "This guy's full of crap. Humans would never do something that cruel. If anything he deserved what he got." After all, Humans can _do no wrong _in the eyes of other Humans, while Faunus are nothing but liars and thieves and trash not even worthy of breathing the same air as you Holier-Than-Though Humans. I wouldn't be surprised if those were the exact thoughts going through your skull right now," he said flippantly.

"Oh, so just because you've met a couple bad Humans, you decide we're _all _like that?!" Yang growled back, lilac eyes flashing red.

"Let's have a little recap then, shall we? My mother was murdered right in front of me by _Humans_, I spent the next four years caged like an animal _by_ Humans, every drop of blood I spilt was for the amusement_ of _Humans, and the ones who profited the most from my pain were, you guessed it, _Humans_. You sensing a pattern here? 'Cause it's not gonna stop any time soon. It hasn't stopped for _centuries_. And as long as Humans have money to abuse, or are willing to look the other way for a little cash and let morals take the back seat, that's the way it's going to stay."

"You're right… Humans _are _monsters. We're cruel, and petty, and selfish, and vain. We start fights over the most ridiculous things, and we're willing to hurt others so we can feel better about ourselves."

"Preaching to the choir here, but go on."

"But I want you to know that you've only seen the _worst _Humankind has to offer! What will it take to show you that there _are _good Humans out there? Humans that _don't _spend every waking moment thinking of ways to torment you just because you've got different-colored skin, or you have a second pair of ears on top of your head, or because you won a war that everyone thinks you should've lost?"

"What will it take?" Jack asked with a raised brow. "_You're _not the one who has to show me. It's the _rest _of your species that has to pony up. It's true that I hold the rest of your kind in contempt, but there _are _Humans I genuinely like. I just couldn't give a rat's ass about the other ninety-nine point nine percent."

"But if you hate Humans so much, why did you come to Beacon to become a Huntsman?"

"First off, it wasn't _my _idea," he said jabbing a thumb at himself. She knew there was a story behind it, but she wasn't sure he was willing to open any more old wounds. "_Second_, I'm going to fight the good fight that other Humans _won't_, because to them, _Humans _are going to be their priority, and the Faunus can die in a ditch for all they care," he answered. "After all, it wasn't _Humans _who got me out of the pits. It was _Faunus_, because to Humans, the life of a Faunus simply isn't a priority. It's _never_ a priority," he angrily spat as his eyes flickered red.

"That's not true!"

"Oh really? When was the last time you helped out a Faunus when it didn't benefit yourself?" Jack asked crossing his arms. "Even Ruby isn't exempt. The only reason she helped me was for her own sense of justice. Her self-satisfaction at being _better _than someone else."

"Hey, don't drag my sister's actions through the mud like that!"

"_No one _ever helps out another person for purely altruistic reasons, that's just the way things work. Maybe in those _fairy tales _we tell Ruby that's how things work, but not in the real world. _Never _in the real world," he argued. "I get that you want to protect her innocence. If my baby sister had ever been born, I'd be the same way. But she isn't, so I'm _not_. You can't protect her forever."

"Dammit, you think I don't know that!?" Yang growled. "I _know _I can't protect her innocence forever! Maybe in the long run this _isn't _helping her. But Ruby lost her mother at a young age, so-"

"I already know about Summer's passing," Jack interrupted, "and losing a mother isn't anything new to _me _either. I get that you want to keep her safe, but someday, she _will _have to face the real world."

"I know that… I know…" Yang sighed as she rubbed her face. "I just… I'm not ready to let go yet."

"I get that. I really do. But you need to face facts that someday, you _will _have to let her grow up, even if that means letting her see the ugly side of the world."

" . . . I know…" she admitted as she slumped forward, her elbows resting on her knees as the water from the shower cascaded down her golden mane of hair, sitting in silence.

" . . . C'mon Yang," Jack said clapping a hand onto her back a few minutes later, snapping her back to reality. "Enough of this gloomy stuff. Even if it doesn't seem like it, I've made peace with what happened. I mean _yeah_, it hurts telling this story again, but I actually feel much better than I have in a long time. So in a way… I'm _grateful _you're an unrelenting pervert."

"Hey!" the blond objected.

"Objection denied!" Jack said crossing his arms in an **X **in an exaggerated matter.

It was slow, barely noticeable, but eventually Yang's pout gave way to a broad smile that lit her face up like the sun, a beautific smile passing her lips as the tension ebbed away. Jack soon followed, the sounds of laughter intermingled with running water as the two leaned into one another, both parties feeling a little bit better than they had before, the clouds of gloom hanging overhead blown away as they laughed good-heartedly.

"Heheh, there it is," Jack chuckled with a smile. "_That's _the smile I've been waiting for."

"Wh-What smile?" Yang asked nervously, the original reason for her incursion slowly returning to the fore.

"You know the one I'm talking about. The one that makes your face light up like sun and-Eyes up here Yang!" the Faunus chastised as he noticed her gaze descending downward. "Eyes up here!"

"Sorry about that. I was just taking in the… landscape," Yang said as she unashamedly ogled the hot slab of man-meat sitting next to her, dripping wet with water running over every muscle and down every crevasse.

"Yeah, I can tell. You were paying _very _close attention to my _peninsular outcropping._"

"Like you can deny you've been gazing at my _twin peaks_," Yang replied as she puffed out her chest, the voluminous orbs of flesh bouncing enticingly.

"I can't deny that," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders. "C'mon," he said pouring some shampoo into his hand. "You offered to help wash my back. The least I can do is help you with your hair," he said with a smile. "Waddya say?"

"A-Alright…" Yang said as a bit of red crept across her features, suddenly nervous about having someone running their fingers through her hair. Sure, she's had guys try to run their fingers through it, and some of the more-bold at Signal would even try and _smell _it. But every one of them had wound up getting punched through a wall and/or having a nearby piece of furniture smashed over their head when they got a little too _friendly_.

_One _poor sap even wound up having his genitals ripped off; totally not her fault. After the third try, she finally learned how to inflict the maximum amount of pain, with the minimum amount of permanent testicular damage.

"Don't worry. It's your first time, so I'll be gentle," Jack said huskily into her ear, a shiver running up her spine as Jack's soapy hands descended to her scalp. His fingers running through her hair, a sigh eventually passed her lips as the Faunus massaged the shampoo down to her roots, a nice _clean _feeling running down her scalp as he began to guide the suds down her mane of hair, careful not to tear or pull. After every last golden strand had been cleaned, the blond rose from her seat and stood directly in the stream of water, the shampoo in her hair running down her body, gliding along the curves she presented to her male teammate. A teasing smile made its way onto Yang's face as she turned slightly away from him, leaving _some _to the imagination as he watched the suds descend down her body and into the drain at her feet. As she slowly applied conditioner, making a show of running it through her hair which now fell down past her buttocks, she reveled in having Jack's undivided attention, if the rising tent pole on the washcloth he'd thrown over his lap was any indication.

"**Oh yeah! Fanservice! Now **_**that's **_**what I'm talking about! You could do without the _guy stuff _though."**

"**Shut up, Tucker!"**

"You like what you see?" Yang asked with a smile. Some people might consider this bold, and some of them might be right, but they were Hunters-in-training, and death was a very near-and-dear companion to every one of them. If you weren't willing to take the plunge, do something reckless every once in a while, you could wind up regretting it if you never put your feelings out there.

"_Definitely_," Jack said with a smile as he flexed his scarred arms, and made his pectorals dance, eliciting a giggle from the blond in front of him at the clapping sounds they made.

"Turn around. It's my turn to do _you_," she said with a grin as she made a twirling motion with her finger.

"That _is _what you said you came here for after all," he said passing her a bar of soap and a washcloth. "Don't worry about the scars. A little scrubbing won't rip _those _open."

"I see," Yang replied, albeit a little sadly as she looked at the expanse of pain and suffering across his back.

Taking the washcloth in her hands, before she could apply the soap, the realized that the cloth in her hands was the same that had been used to cover his _reaction _(read: _erec_tion) to the sight of her wet, naked body only moments before. However, instead of yelping out in disgust or being repulsed by it, she stared intently at it for a couple seconds. Seeing Jack's gaze firmly away from her, the blond soundlessly, and slowly, brought the cloth up to her nose, a thick, heady odor invading her nostrils as she took an experimental whiff of his natural musk_._

Mmmmmusk.

Mmmmmmmusk.

"Hentai," Jack said without missing a beat as she continued to smell the washcloth.

"You bastard," she jabbed playfully as she punched him in the arm.

"I'm not a bastard," Jack countered. "I'm _the _bastard," he said over his shoulder with a good-natured smile.

"Is that _so_, Mr. _The _Bastard?" Yang grinned playfully as she applied soap to the washcloth.

"I've had people call me worse, and few of them were as pretty as you."

"That's so corny," Yang said laying the soapy cloth to his back, slowly running it up and down, mindful of his scars and the water-resistant gauze wrapped around his midsection. " . . . Hey Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"You've… You've opened up a _lot _to me lately. About Jill, your mother, and your sister… about your past… Yet I feel like this trust hasn't been a two-way street between us." Jack was about to object, but a finger to his lips cut him off. "Jack… There's a story I'd like to tell you. A story about _my _mother. Can you lend me an ear?" she asked nervously. She simply wasn't _used _to talking to guys in this capacity, especially after one had borne his soul so openly for her only minutes ago.

"Yang, you have all four," he said making a light joke, Yang nodding her head with a smile on her face as she thought about where to begin.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So…" Blake hummed as she looked up from her book towards the door. "Yang's been gone an awfully long time."

"What do you think she's _doing _in there?" Ruby asked, wondering why it was taking so long for Yang to get back. Sure, she had the biggest hair on the team and that took up the most shower-time, but this was even longer than _usual_.

"Maybe she's doing _Jack_," Weiss uncharacteristically huffed from behind her textbook.

"Doing _what _to him?" Ruby asked looking up at her partner. The heiress of course, made the mistake of looking over and seeing the young girl's large, silver puppy-eyes that demanded absolute obedience bearing down on her, wide and innocent in their splendor.

"Um… Well…" Weiss began nervously, Blake chuckling to herself at how the normally-composed heiress was now put on the spot. "Has… Has your father ever told you about the birds and the bees?"

"My uncle did after dad got really quiet and awkward about it. But what does that confusing metaphor have to do… with…?" she trailed off as the gears began to mesh. "Ew! Gross! Jack's going to French-kiss Yang's girl-parts with his man-parts?!"

"What kind of metaphor is your uncle _teaching _you!?" Weiss gawped.

"A real _awkward _one probably," Blake said turning a page in her book.

"Hey guys!" Yang said barging into the room, now clad in a bathrobe with her clothes and toiletries tucked under her arm.

"Yang! Have you been deep-throating Jack's man-parts with your girl-parts?!" Ruby asked desperately as she grabbed the front of Yang's robe. "Please tell me you haven't! I'm not ready to be an aunt yet!"

"_Seriously_! What is your uncle _teaching _you?!" Weiss yelped.

"Apparently, ones that center around kissing. Very _vulgar _kissing," Blake deadpanned, wondering just what kind of person their uncle was if he used sexual innuendo as metaphors for sex. They weren't even that _tasteful_, just in appropriate.

"Ruby, relax, I only went to _talk _to him," the blond replied waving her hands down, though the looks she was getting from the rest of her Team said they weren't buying it. "Seriously, nothing happened."

"Then why are you _glowing_?" Weiss asked, gripping angrily at her textbook for some unknown reason as she saw the soft glow radiating from Yang's hair.

"What can I say? Jack's got magic fingers."

"I knew it! I _knew _you've been doing naughty things to my brother!" Ruby accused pointing a finger at her.

"Don't say _brother _like that! If he were your brother, he'd be _my _brother too, and that makes it sound _really_ weird!" Yang cried in turn.

"Really? Because you sounded pretty _pumped _after walking in through that door," Blake said making an obscene hand gesture.

"Stop it, Blake! What if that's another of her uncle's grossly-obscene metaphors!" Weiss cried out.

"_Well_…"

"Don't you fucking do it!" the heiress growled before Yang could articulate.

"We're getting off-track here!" Yang interjected. "Okay, yes, I may've had _some _ulterior motive for talking to him right _then_…

"_Some_?" everyone asked skeptically.

"But we got to talking and… things changed."

"Changed?" Ruby asked. "Like how? What did he say?"

"That's just the thing. I _can't _say," Yang answered.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.

"I mean that what Jack told me… It was really personal. He placed a lot of trust in me by telling me, and after all he's been through, both before and after he came to Beacon, I don't want to betray that trust he's put in me. He's been hurt enough already," she said wrapping her arms around herself.

"…I understand," Ruby replied with a nod, much to Yang's surprise. "When I met him again in that gazebo after our first week, he looked like he was holding in a lot of pain, deep down inside. So I can understand why it'd be hard for him to open up to everyone at once."

"Well, he might open up to us _more_ if we used _words_ instead of _swords_," Blake said poignantly toward Weiss.

"Hey!" the heiress cried, the room's door opening up at that moment, revealing a fully-dressed Jack.

"If anyone wants to tell me what's going on here… I'll be in the lounge," he said ominously as the door closed in front of him.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

True to form, Jack spent the rest of the evening in the student lounge on the first floor of their building. It had a couple of TVs, some sofas, a foosball table, a ping pong table, and even a billiards table. Team RWBY watched him from a distance, if only to make sure he was okay. A while later, Ren, and Nora in tow, took a seat on the same sofa and began to lazily watch TV together. When they started talking in eastern Mistrali, the group of girls decided to give them their privacy. For one, it was rude to eavesdrop; two, he must've called them specifically to hang out before dinner; and three, they had no idea what was being even being _said_.

A while later, Ruby called Jack on his Scroll to have dinner with them. However, he passed on the offer, saying he needed some time alone for the evening. It hurt her a bit to be brushed off like that, but she understood, and consented to give him his space. The meal was quieter than usual, due to Yang lacking her usual exuberance, and it wasn't like they could ask Ren and Nora what they were talking about in the lounge otherwise they'd be busted for eavesdropping.

"Hey, Weiss?" Yang spoke up after their meal.

"Yes?"

"I'm… sorry for giving you a hard time," the blond apologized, much to the heiress' shock. "I should've accepted the fact that you were actually sorry for what you did after-the-fact, but I was just so fixated that you'd hurt him so… _maliciously_, that I guess I got a little red-eyed to everything in front of me. So I'm sorry."

"Th… Thank you," Weiss returned, still surprised that _Yang _of all people had forgiven her. "I'm surprised you've forgiven me this quickly."

"Well…" Yang sighed as she thought back to what she'd been told. "I've realized, there are _worse _people in the world than you-"

"Hey!"

"And since you're genuinely sorry, I guess I can let this little scuffle between the two of you slide," Yang said with a nod. "But if you ever hurt him like that again, I'll take a number from prisoner twenty-four six-oh-one'sbook and _destroy _your scrawny white ass," she said jabbing a finger at the heiress' nose.

"I don't think Jean Valjean ever _said_ that in Les Misérables."

"Les Miser-_what-_now?"

" . . . Never mind," the heiress sighed, having thought for a moment that Yang had _some _culture in her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

That night, as everyone slept, Jack was up on the roof, staring at the stars in the sky. His eyes then turned to the moon, pale, and broken, like he had almost been so many times before. However, much like that moon, he managed to become whole again, even if the world around him strove to break him apart, time and time again. The bulk of his attention was on the sky, a beautiful band of glittering light painting a beautiful arm of jewels amidst a blue expanse, but he paid _just _enough attention to the surroundings to hear the squeak of the roof's only doorway.

"Hello, Yang. Any reason in particular you're still up?" Jack asked, eyes still on the night sky. "Normally you saw logs 'til morning."

"I… couldn't sleep," Yang answered as she rubbed her eyes. "I guess I'm still… processing."

"Miltia said the same thing," Jack said off-handedly.

"The chick in the red dress? How does _she _know?" Yang asked, her brow twitching slightly.

"Ah, ah, _ah_. A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," Jack said waggling his finger at her.

"And _yet_, that _tells_ me all I need to know," the blond deadpanned. "I don't mean to sound like a _prude _or anything, but are you this easy with _all _the ladies?"

"Only the ones that make me feel like I'm actually _worth _something, instead of a worthless piece of garbage," Jack said flippantly. "You got to be born a buxom blond with a great ass, nice tits, and a pretty face. And _Human_. You'll never know what it's like having everyone treat you like trash simply because you're different."

" . . . I guess you really _have _been love-starved your whole life," Yang said sadly. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he and Miltia had been _intimate_. If not what he'd said just then, then it was in the showers where he implied he'd told his story before. The very same story he probably told her when she saw him without his clothes on.

"I got _plenty _of love in my life!" Jack snapped back. "Or at least the _first _half of it," he grumbled. "Not even ten years old and half my family was taken from me in a day. Talk about a shit-draw of the cards."

"I'm sorry," Yang apologized. "It seems like I have a real _knack _for saying the wrong thing."

"You can say _that _again."

"It seems like I have a real _knack _for saying the wrong thing."

"Ha. Ha. Ha," Jack mock-laughed with tilts of his head. "So… What do you think of me now?"

"_Now…_?" Yang asked, looking very unsure of herself, nervously twitting her thumbs. "To be honest, at first I was really shallow, looking at only your muscles, your looks, that eye-drawing T-shirt, your ability to kick ass, your muscles…"

"You already said muscles."

"But now I know you have all this baggage and… I'm not sure _what _to think anymore, now that I know the truth about you," she admitted.

"It's alright if you want to forget we ever had that conversation," Jack said giving her an out. "Me? I've spent _years _trying to drink and smoke and sleep the nightmares away. Nothing worked, but maybe you'll have better luck than me."

"But I _can't _forget! I _won't_!" Yang argued, much to his surprise. "What happened to you, and your mother, and your sister, and all those Faunus… I _can't _just up and forget what happened! If I do, it's like I'm saying I'm _okay _with what happened, and I'm _not_!"

" . . . It's genuinely really nice to hear another person say something like that," Jack said with a small smile on his face.

" . . . Does it still hurt?" Yang asked after a minute.

"_Everything _hurts," Jack said rubbing his arms, Yang's eyes drawn to the scars criss-crossing his flesh. Now that she knew the _story _behind them, she just didn't get the same kind of rush thinking about how he'd gotten them that she used to. "You'll have to be a bit more specific."

"Your _neck_, I mean… Does it still hurt?"

"Only every time I breathe… or swallow… or turn my head," he said rubbing his neck. "A painful reminder that once upon a time, I was nothing more than an object. A pawn in some man's hand. A puppet to be jerked around by the strings."

"Maybe… But that isn't who you are anymore," Yang said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It still feels that way," Jack said closing his eyes. "Every time I close my eyes, all I ever see are those same four walls, mocking me, taunting me, the light of day forever out of reach," he said reaching toward the moon, before letting his arm fall tiredly at his side.

" . . . Jack… Can you close your eyes for a minute?" the blond asked out of seemingly nowhere.

"Why?"

"I… I want to give you something… Something that'll make the pain go away… even if it's only a little bit."

" . . . Alright," Jack sighed, closing his eyes and tuning out the world around him. The sounds of Yang's footfalls disappeared back inside behind him, so he spent the next couple of minutes simply enjoying the night breeze cooling across his skin.

A few minutes later and Yang came back up to him. The scent of strawberries filled his nose as he felt something pulled over his head, Yang's hand reaching behind his head and flipping his hair back out into the open. Opening his eyes, he looked down in surprise to see that Yang had slipped her signature infinity scarf around his neck.

"What's this for?" he asked rubbing the fabric between his fingers.

"Sorry it wasn't what you were _hoping _for," Yang flirted with a wink, some of her cheerful energy returning to her tone. "It's just… I wanted you to have something that'd let you know you were… _free_. Something warm, and comforting," she said gaining a thoughtful expression. "I can't imagine what it's like… having to wear shackles and chains…" she said as she rubbed at her own neck. "But hopefully, this small, meaningful gesture will take some of the pain away… and I just realize that sounded way better in my head," the blond admitted bashfully as he adjusted the neckwear around his neck.

" . . . Thank you, Yang," Jack said with a smile. "I'll take good care of."

"Yeah, and plus it _smells _like me, so that's just an added bonus," she said with a toothy grin, Jack raising part of the scarf to his nose and smelling it. While it was true that the scent of Yang's strawberry shampoo was most-prominent, to his own senses, the smell of Yang's unique _parfum _was quite noticeable, showing she'd worn it on many an adventure, yet the fact that the material hadn't deteriorated meant she'd taken good care of it.

"I can't deny that you _do _smell nice," Jack said with a smile. "But… Are you sure it's alright to give me this? Wasn't this a gift from Summer?"

"…Yeah," the blond admitted it. "She gave it to me just before her last mission. She always _did _say I looked best with orange. Red was _Ruby's _thing."

"Then I _can't _take this. It means too much to you," he said moving to take it off, only for Yang to put her hands on his and stop him.

"It isn't the _scarf _that's the important thing here. It's the memories, and the _love _that come with it, and those will never disappear," she said shaking her head. "After hearing your story, I realize that there are worse things that could've happened to me, and I know that if Summer were still here, she'd want to help you too," she said putting his hands at his sides, and fluffing up the scarf around his neck. "So please… keep the scarf. Even if it's only a little bit, I want to help shoulder this weight you've been carrying for so long. Can you let me do that?"

" . . . " Jack seemed hesitant for a moment, a hand going up to touch the fabric around his neck, before looking back to Yang, an expectant look on her face. Looking back up at the moon, the Faunus let out a tired sigh before, in a surprising move, wrapped his arms around Yang. "Thank you, Yang. Thank you for being my friend."

Hearing the relief, and maybe the desperation, in his tone, the blond returned the hug. In both the past and the present he'd been hurting, and while he was bound to hurt in the future, the blond felt compelled to do whatever she could to help him along, so that he wouldn't feel that kind of pain ever again.

"_**True pain isn't something that runs through the body. It is something that pierces the heart, and constricts it without limit."**_

"Did anyone ever tell you that you sound really cool when you talk philosophically?" the blond asked, remembering his words. He was only a year older than her, and yet… he gave off the same kind of vibe as her uncle. And maybe even Ozpin in a couple years.

"Not until now," the Faunus replied. "The next time Ruby goes to Summer's grave, I'll have to see about going with her."

"What for?" the blond asked as they separated.

"Well, I figure I should thank her. She raised not one, but _two _great girls who helped me pick up the pieces again."

"That's so cheesy," the blond said playfully punching him in the arm.

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that," Jack chuckled, the two sharing a good laugh.

"Well, it's been nice talking with you and all." _*YAAAAAAAWN* _"But it's about time we got back to the room. You've got work to do."

"Uh… _Work_?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. My bed's ice-cold by now, so you'll just have to be my bed-warmer in yours. And just so you know, I'm a cuddler, and I have wandering fingers," she said waggling her eyebrows before skipping off, humming a tune to herself with a megawatt smile on her face.

"Fine, fine…" Jack sighed with a wave of his hand as he followed Yang back inside. " . . . Wait, what?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**12,000-plus words? Holy **_**crap **_**this was a long one! But oh-so-satisfying to finally put out.  
**

**You're probably wondering what the hell was going through my head when I decided to write Yang sneaking into the guy's shower to get a peek at her sole male teammate. Let me remind you however, that Yang is NOT the first person to go into the guy's bathroom, THIS little tidbit I was only able to "connect" in my mind when I re-watched the series prior to Volume 3. Volume One, Episode Four "The First Step", at the part where Lie Ren is brushing his teeth, you can CLEARLY see Nora in the background brushing her teeth in the same room as him. She's a little scatter-brained, so she probably didn't really notice she went into the guy's restroom alongside Ren, and I get the feeling that Ren is quite used to Nora's antics by that point, so he probably didn't pay it much mind.**

**The whole "unspoken rule" thing was to give some **_**dimension **_**to the world of Remnant, more specifically how Huntsmen and Huntresses are brought up in the early stages of training. The rooms are co-ed, so why not the bathrooms? In Japan they have Mixed Bathing at certain places, so then the idea occurred to me, little by little until I got the full picture. Though there ARE separate bathrooms for boys and girls, an unspoken rule is that it is not set-in-stone; the fact that girls can go in to the guys' bathrooms but not the other way around is a double-standard, that's true. However real life is filled with such things, like how a woman can hit a man and it's "okay" even without knowing all the circumstances, but a man hits a woman and its automatically "wrong" even without knowing all the circumstances. Or if two women have sex that's "hot" but if two **_**men **_**get it on it's "nasty".**

**That too is my opinion, but that's not the point I'm making.**

**Honestly, this display on Yang's part shouldn't be all that surprising, since in a couple stories I've read scenes where she tried to see the male lead's "package", sometimes going through great lengths (pun not intended) to do so. Yang got an eyeful, just not one she was expecting, and part of Jack's past prior to him joining Beacon has finally been revealed. **

**Cues are taken from both the manga ****Killing Bites**** and ****One Piece****. In fact that's where the idea for a Honey Badger being used as the template for a Faunus was derived from (the prior), but more than anything was I took the opportunity to portray the dark **_**ugly **_**side of the world of Remnant where money equals power, and people **_**with **_**power will use it to acquire more money at the expense of others. ESPECIALLY the expense of others, like the Tenryubito/Celestial Dragons in ****One Piece****. The Slave Collars are the same, but in this case they can also nullify and inhibit the use of Aura.  
**

**When it comes to the **_**aesthetic **_**of Jack's scars… While the shower scene **_**itself **_**is inspired by the manga ****Triage X****, Jack's scars would greatly resemble those of Jinbei Shishido from the end of ****UQ Holder**** "Stage 8: The Strength of a Leader". Or at least the ones on his chest, abdomen, and arms. I didn't **_**look **_**for any particular examples of what a whipped person's back looks like, and the reason for that inclusion as to be a physical representation of his status as a former Slave. That and I can **_**easily **_**imagine rich assholes in Remnant whipping Faunus into bloody paste just because they can; behind closed doors of course.**

**Lord above (and the internet) knows that slavery in the United States was legal for a little more than three and a half centuries; 1501-1865 if some sources are to be quoted.**

**Anyway, I hope that this little expose gives a little more depth to Jack's character, as well as his first impulse, motive, and memory.  
**

**All that being said, I hope you read this and leave lots of Reviews, and that you look forward to Jaunedice, which starts next-chapter.**


	23. Dirty Little Secret

With Finals right around the corner at the end of the week, Professor Port actually knuckled down and talked about _Grimm _more than he did about himself. It was a welcomed change of pace, since his lectures didn't put half the class to sleep, nor trap the other half in a vicious cycle of nodding off but forcing themselves back awake so they wouldn't be _caught _sleeping in class.

After that came Dr. Oobleck's World History. The green-haired instructor was always a no-nonsense sort, getting right to the point and taking his job seriously. The man was rather _passionate _about his work, putting his all into every word he articulated, and the completion of every lesson plan without one millimeter of error. He seemed especially-intent on making sure the past wasn't repeated, something _anyone _could appreciate; at least if they _cared _about that kind of thing and weren't completely self-absorbed in their _own _shit.

Also, for whatever reason, it was like Dr. Oobleck's feet never left the ground, he simply _moved _from place to place like some kind of deranged mannequin. That liked to talk. A _lot_.

"_This _is prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more-popularly known as the Faunus War!" Dr. Oobleck said zooming to the front of the room and striking the map with his pointer, said map covered in newspaper articles and thumbtacks with pieces of yarn linking them, making the entire front wall look like a giant "conspiracy board". "Humankind was quite, quite _adamant _about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie. Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively _recent _events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this very day!" he lectured between sips of his coffee. "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated against because of your Faunus heritage?"

A few of the Faunus in class raised their hands, a brunette Faunus girl with rabbit ears doing so a moment later. Instead of raising his hand, Jack went on to say-

"Do you remember Sunday after the first week?" he rhetorically asked, gesturing to the trio of empty seats that had been so for the past three weeks. "I think those empty seats speak _volumes_ about racial discrimination."

"Dreadful, simply dreadful!" the man admitted with a nod. "Remember, students, it is _precisely _that kind of ignorance which breeds violence! I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the _turning_ point in the third year of the War?" he asked, scanning the classroom before turning his attention to a raised hand. "Yes?"

"The battle at Fort Castle!" Weiss answered matter-of-factly.

'_What kind of dumbass named their fort _Castle_?' _Jack thought to himself. Had this been the week prior, he would've mocked Weiss for being such a nerd. Instead, he found _other _Humans to mock. Like whatever dumbass named their fort _Castle_. _'Also, who calls young people _Scallions _anymore__? Or_ ever_?'_

"Precisely! _And_, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" he asked. At that precise moment, Cardin flicked a paper football through the air, striking Jaune on the back of the head and noisily rousing him from his slumber. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! _Excellent_! What is the answer?" he pressed.

"Uhhhh… The answer… The advantage… of the Faunus…" the blond trailed off as his eyes drifted around the room trying to find help. "…had over that guy's stuff…" At this point Pyrrha was cupping her hands around her eyes, which prompted Jaune to go for the most-obvious answer. To him. "Uh… _Binoculars!_"

Looking rather pleased with himself, that pride soon deflated as laughter broke out amongst the class. Pyrrha slapped a hand to her forehead and tiredly sighed, Cardin pounded a fist on his desk while chortling, while Dr. Oobleck simply drank from his mug, not looking entertained in the slightest.

"Tch. Wigger," Jack huffed indignantly as he angrily tapped his eraser on the desk.

"I do not believe I am familiar with that particular piece of vernacular, Mr. Braxton," the green-haired doctor said as his attention fixated solely on the monochrome-haired Faunus. "Care to elaborate your comment to the rest of the class?"

At this point, most students would've answered- "No, sir." –after speaking out-of-term in the middle of class, if only so their instructor's undivided attention was not focused solely on _them_.

Jack, however, was not "most students". Let's just say that when God (or a certain incredibly-brilliant-but-under-appreciated writer) made the mold, he forgot what said mold even _looked like _afterwards. Or where he even put it. Or... What was I thinking of again?

"Well, the word _'Nigger'_, when not being used as a contemptuous term for a black or otherwise dark-skinned person, means _'Illiterate'. _Wigger is a combination of the words _White _and _Nigger_, and is used to refer to an illiterate or otherwise uneducated _white _person. Like Mr. Arc over there," he explained concisely as he pointed his eraser in Jaune's direction.

"Ah… I see…" Dr. Oobleck answered in kind, a few of the room shocked at how their fast-lipped teacher had actually had the wind taken out of his sails. "Normally I would chastise you for that sort of racist language in a school environment, however, based on your _gestures_ a minute prior, I take it that Mr. Arc's statement was _equally _insulting. So I will let that slide. _This _time."

"You got it, professor."

"It's _Doctor_ Oobleck. I didn't earn the PhD for _fun_, thank you very much!" the hyperactive doctor replied.

"Doctor, got it. Totally get where you're coming from," Jack returned. "Guys like us with degrees worked _hard _for our doctorates. And that should be recognized."

"I find it rather hard to believe that someone of your young age holds a legitimate doctorate," Dr. Oobleck replied as he adjusted his spectacles. It wasn't that he doubted the intelligence of one of his students, but an eighteen year-old already in possession of a doctorate _was _hard to believe.

"Oh yeah?" Jack said as he whipped out his Pocket Scroll before scrolling around for a picture. "Ha! Check it!"

"Hmmm…" Dr. Oobleck hummed as he leaned toward Jack's Pocket Scroll. "To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting Be it known that Jack Braxton having honorably fulfilled all the requirements imposed by the authorities of this Institution, the President and the trustees of the IGO, upon recommendation of the faculty, do therefore confer the degree of Poultry Science with all Honors, Rights, and Privileges to that degree appertaining," the man read aloud from the picture on-screen, which showed a slightly-younger Jack receiving said doctorate from a man in a black suit. It was a high-quality picture since the words could be zoomed-in-upon so finely. "Seems legitimate. It's nice to have a fellow Doctor in the room," the man replied with a nod as he adjusted his glasses, whereas the speaking ability of all else in the room was utterly destroyed.

" . . . Well holy shit," Yang gawped, the first to find her words.

"Back to the topic at hand!" Dr. Oobleck said as though the last five minutes never happened. "Would anyone else care to share their thoughts on the subject-before-prior?"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an _animal_ than a soldier," Cardin lazily replied, the doctor shaking his hand at the ignorance of his statement. That Jack didn't outwardly respond only showed that he was _used _to it.

"You're not the most _open-_minded of individuals, are you Cardin?" Pyrrha asked.

"What? You got a _problem_?"

"No, I have the answer. It's _night vision_. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

"_Thank _you!" Jack exasperated, while Cardin growled at the red-head's response.

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, outmaneuvered, out_classed_, and the general was handily captured without a single Faunus casualty. Perhaps if he'd paid more attention in _class_, history wouldn't have remembered him as such a _failure_," the black-haired beauty said smugly at Cardin, the red-head rising from his seat with his fist clenched.

"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat," the man chided, Jaune taking the opportunity to laugh at his tormentor's embarrassment. "You _and _Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings. Now! Moving on!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

One lecture on the aftermath of the Faunus Rights Revolution later, and the bell rang. Teams RWBY+1 and most of JNPR were dismissed for lunch. Like the good friends they were, they stayed behind so they could all go to lunch with Jaune together. Of course, _one _in particular stayed behind for the entertainment value.

"So… What're they saying in there?" Ruby asked.

"Hm. I dunno. Lemme see what I can pick," Jack said making a show of cupping his hand around his ear, closing his eyes. "I won't repeat what he's saying verbatim, but I'll give you the gist of what he's saying… Alright, it sounds like he's chewing them out for either not showing any interest or just being stubborn… he's going on about how Beacon only accepts the best of the best and they should _act _like it… The whole if-you-don't-learn-from-the-past-you're-doomed-to-repeat-it spiel… And…" _*Whoo* _"That is a _lot _of extra readings due for next-class."

"So it was pretty _bad _huh?" Ruby asked.

"Pretty much," Jack replied with a shrug, Jaune and Cardin stepping out of the room moments later. Cardin _looked _like he was about to push the meek-in-comparison blond over, but the rumbling of his stomach gave him _bigger _priorities, and the young Arc went un-bullied. For now.

"Mr. Braxton. A moment of your time?" the green-haired doctor asked, zipping to a stop beside the dark-skinned teen.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll be at lunch in a minute," Jack said waving the Teams off. They nodded in response, going down the hall and around the corner… before poking their heads around it a few seconds later so they were still in earshot. "So, doctor. What'd you want to talk to me about?"

"I…" the man trailed off as he tried to find the words. "I wish to apologize."

"Oh? For what?" Jack asked. "The only teacher who ever offended me was Goodwitch."

"I'd observed your original Team for the duration of the first week. I'd seen the discord and in-fighting going on in your ranks, the hatred and loathing in their eyes, and yet I did nothing about it. Instead I stood idly by while they treated you like _refuse_, something I'm sure only deepened your hatred for our species. For that, I wish to express my sincerest apologies. Both as a Human being, and as an instructor who should've done something more for his pupil, but instead chose not to. I hope you can bring yourself to forgive my inaction," he said bowing slightly at the waist.

"It's cool, doc. You looked the other way when I put those yahoos in hospital beds, so we're even," the Faunus waved off, talking about maiming people and putting them in hospital beds like it was no big deal. Which it probably wasn't. For him. Wasn't for _him_.

"Still, I feel as though I'm partially to blame for your suffering, and I apologize."

"Don't. I've dealt with trash like that who treated me _like _trash for _literally _half my life. It's nothing new, and I'm used to it. Nothing to get your knickers in a twist over." _'Knickers? Seriously? Who the hell says_ that _anymore?_'

"That's what bothers me the most. That you're _used _to that sort of treatment. That _anyone _can become so desensitized to baseless discrimination, that they treat it like a part of everyday life."

"Yeah, well, don't lose any sleep over it. Goddess knows _I _don't."

"Are you referring to Etro, the Goddess of Chaos, by any chance?" he asked adjusting his glasses. Religion was _also _something he loved to study, as it proved to be a very _large _impetus for advancement, stagnation, or even _regression_ in past civilizations at their rise, peak, or decline. History went hand-in-hand with both religion and culture after all.

"No, I'm referring to _Miritta_, the Goddess of fertility, childbirth, and _prostitutes_," the Faunus drawled sarcastically with a deadpan. "Of _course _I'm talking about Etro! What reason would I have to follow a _Human _religion? Half of the wars between Humans and Faunus were started _because _of those hypocritical religions!" the Faunus ranted. "Love thy neighbor _my ass_!"

"I… figured, but didn't want to assume," the man said adjusting his glasses that had come askew when he _did _think Jack was a follower of Miritta. Hers was one of the more… _controversial _religions out there, given followers had to work as prostitutes at least once before marriage. However, the fact that _none _of her followers _ever_ lost infants to childbirth, nor did any of them have birth-defects, even in areas where medicine was sub-standard at best, was proof-enough that _some _kind of invisible force was looking out for them. "Also, I'm curious about one more thing. After that I'll leave you to go to lunch."

"Oh? What's that?"

"What possible reason could you have had for pursuing a _doctorate _in Poultry Science?" the man asked in genuine curiosity. This question piqued the interest of the others as well.

"Well…" Jack hummed in contemplation. "After my godfather ruptured half my organs in our yearly spar a while back," he began as he flipped his hand at the wrist, the others' hands going to their mouths in shock, whereas Dr. Oobleck schooled his expression. "I was basically _glued _to a hospital bed while my squishy insides knit themselves back together, and since I couldn't train, or _work_, I decided to read instead. One month and a dozen books of reference material later, and I decided to take the IGO's Doctorate Equivalency Exam. Bada-bing, bada-boom, from then-on I could legally distribute poultry on the wholesale market by myself, or in my own restaurant if I so chose."

"I see. That is… quite a story you have there," the man said adjusting his glasses. Nothing in Jack's facial expression or body language indicated he was _lying_, so the possibility that he _did _have "half" his organs "ruptured" was very much real. That Jack could not only _survive _such an ordeal, let alone get back on his feet and even _walk _again, spoke _volumes _of the Faunus' impressive life-force. Or maybe his stubbornness. Maybe a little of Column A and Column B.

"And _exactly _why impalement isn't a big deal to me anymore," Jack waved off as he walked away. "Have a nice lunch, doctor."

"Yes, you as well," Dr. Oobleck said as he regained his composure, zipping off to god _knows _where, coffee mug and its contents completely undisturbed.

"Jack," Weiss said stepping out in front of the Faunus, revealing their eavesdropping if he hadn't known already. "What you said to Dr. Oobleck back then… was it true?"

"Yeah. I really _did _read a dozen books and reference materials before taking my DEEs."

"Not _that_! The _other _thing!"

"Poultry on the wholesale and private business market?"

"The _other _other thing!" the heiress raged, wondering if Jack was just _screwing _with her.

"The organs that got ruptured?"

"YES!"

"_Oooooh_, that. _That's _what you're worried about?" he asked, the heiress nodding. "Don't worry. I said it was _only _half so I wouldn't freak the man out."

"Oh, well that's good to-did you say _'only'_?" the heiress asked hyper-analyzing his words.

"Yeah. I mean, if I told him _all _of my organs had gotten ruptured, he'd probably drag me off to Dr. Katt's for another physical or something, and I'd miss lunch," he brushed off like it was nothing, Weiss' hands going to her mouth in shock as she paled even further.

"How the blood-soaked Protestant hell are you still _alive_?!" she gawped. Off to the side, Yang paled as well, wondering what kind of _monster _his godfather was if he'd go as far to rupture every organ in his godson's body in a _spar_. Or what kind of hit could even _do _that while still leaving you _alive_.

"Because I'm _too stubborn to die_," Jack answered with an ear-to-ear smile as he pat her on the head. "Now c'mon. Let's grab us some lunch before our next classes."

"But-"

"And I am _done_, _talking _about this," he said matter-of-factly, leaving no room for debate.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So! There we were, in the middle of the _night_…"

"It was day."

"We were _surrounded _by Ursai…"

"They were Beowolves."

"_Dozens _of them!"

"Two of 'em."

"But they were no match, and in the end, Ren and I _took them down _and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa-skin _rugs_!" Nora finished, a satisfied look on her face as she crossed her arms.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a _month _now," Ren sighed, balancing a cup of tea on his open palm.

"We noticed," Jack, Weiss, and Yang said at the same time, a light-hearted chuckle leaving their lips at the funny coincidence. It was as though they _hadn't _been talking about life-threatening injuries minutes ago. Any _attempts _at bringing it up were promptly ignored, or met with demands to address him as "Doctor".

"Jaune? Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked her Team captain, the blond tiredly picking at his food.

" . . . Huh?" Jaune asked, lost in his own little world before realizing someone was talking to him. "Oh! Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem a little… _not _okay…" Ruby said awkwardly as she rolled her hands.

"Guys, seriously, I'm fine. Look!" he said holding up a thumbs-up, laughing nervously. No-one bought it.

"Does no-one else find it gross that Weiss is filing her nails all over our food?" Jack asked out of nowhere, the heiress blushing as she put her file away. Before she could defend herself though, their attention was drawn to a couple tables down, Team CRDN having surrounded the brunette Rabbit Faunus girl from the previous class, mocking and jeering her for the ears that sat atop her head, which drooped over in sadness.

"Jaune… Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school," Pyrrha said with a huff.

"Wha- Who-who, Cardin Winchester? Nah… he just likes to mess around! You know, _practical jokes_!" he said trying to brush it off like it was nothing.

"He's a _bully_," Ruby scowled.

"Oh please. Name _one _time he's _'bullied' _me," the blond said making air quotes.

"The time he shoved you into your locker during orientation and pressed a bunch of buttons," Ruby answered without missing a beat.

_**"****Ah come oooooon!"**_

"I didn't land _that _far from the school," the blond returned.

"There was the time he pushed your sheath's button and got you wedged in a doorway while it was still hooked to your belt," Ren chose to speak up.

"Accidents happen _all the time_."

"How about when he slapped your books out of your hands like a _preschooler_?" Yang saw fit to ask.

"I had _butterfingers_ when I was a kid."

"That was yesterday," Ruby deadpanned.

"Then what about the time he put itching powder into your underwear drawer?" Pyrrha asked.

"In my defense, I was trying to use up the last of the mothballs and grabbed the itching powder by mistake," Jack said without missing a beat as he brushed aside the bits of his food Weiss got nail shavings into.

" . . . The point I'm trying to make is," Pyrrha said choosing to ignore Jack's blatant back-handed confession to what had become referred to as The Itching Powder Incident, where Jaune could barely stop scratching his genitals for more than five minutes. "If you ever need help, you can just _ask_."

"Ooooh!" Nora whooped as she hopped up from her seat, presenting a not-entirely-sane grin. "We'll break his _legs_!" she said with all the zeal of a mad scientist crossed with a used car salesman.

"Guys, really, it's _fine_. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to _me_. He's a jerk to everyone," the blond waved off, the rabbit girl's ears being pulled on by Cardin.

"Atrocious. I can't _stand _people like him," Pyrrha huffed at the display.

"He's _not _the only one," Blake scowled.

"It's _hard _being a Faunus," Yang sighed as she looked at Jack. Knowing what had happened to him, and his family… It was like a set of rose-tinted glasses she hadn't even known were there were ripped off her face, turned into a flea _somehow_, put in a box, put into _another _box, shipped to herself, and then smashed with a _hammer_!

"Don't everyone get up at _once_," Jack huffed as he rolled his eyes, drinking deeply from his milk carton.

"I'd think out of everyone, _you'd_ be the first to act," Weiss stated as she closed her fanny pack.

_*GAAASP* _"That's _racist!_" Nora gasped, aghast.

"_How _is saying that _racist_?" the heiress asked.

"BLAGH! You got nail-filings in this! YUCK!"

"You automatically assume that because Jack is a Faunus like her, he'll be automatically compelled to help her in her time of need. However, just because they're both Faunus doesn't mean they'll automatically _like _each other. After all, you and Ruby _hated _each other when you first met, and the two of _you _were the same species. Not to mention, homeless people on the street get ignored _all the time_. Ergo, special similarity _alone _isn't merit-enough to form an obligation to help one another," Nora explained in a matter-of-fact tone, reminding everyone that the red-head wasn't _nearly _as dumb as she let on to be.

"_Thank _you!" Jack sighed in exasperation. "And besides, hating racists is a given. There's _worse _things to hate than that."

"Like what?" Blake asked. Jack certainly didn't make things _boring_ if the whole talk about _Poultry Science _was any indicator.

"Weaklings who won't even stand _up _for themselves for one," the Faunus tallied off. "Another is slackers who weasel their way into Hunter Academies on falsified credentials because they're too lazy to put in the work to earn _real _ones," he added, a certain blond choking on their food at that exact moment.

"Huh. _That's _oddly specific," Ruby said gaining a thoughtful expression, while said blond was now sweating like a pig in a sauna. Assuming said pig had sweat glands. Which it doesn't. So it wouldn't. But said blond _was_.

. . . He was sweating a lot.

"Yeah, well, why _wouldn't _I hate gutless losers like that? Guys like that get into Hunter Academies, and not _only _are they wasting time and resources, but they're taking a spot away from someone who _deserves _to be a Hunter-in-training. In _my _opinion, losers like that can only be counted on for two things. One, being _meat shields,_" the Faunus said pulling down a finger. "_Two_, getting QUALIFIED Hunters-in-Training killed while they save their own skins, because they're in a position they don't even _belong _in. Like fence-turtles. Turtle didn't get up there all by _himself_, I'll tell you what."

"I know that's oddly-specific, but _yeah_, now I totally _hate _guys like that!" Yang huffed angrily as she knocked her fists together, Ember Celica unfolding across her arms.

"Ooh! We'll break _their _legs!" Nora cackled.

"I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to _try_," Ren said sipping his tea, whereas a certain blond continued to shrink in on himself.

"Pet-peeves aside though…" Ruby said as she fidgeted in her seat. "Watching her suffer like that… It's making me feel really sick," the red-tipped brunette paled as Team CRDN continued to mock and jeer at the Faunus girl.

'_Poor girl… Probably thinking about Arthur right now,' _Yang thought with crossed arms as she watched the Faunus girl suffer. The expression on her face was the same as Arthur's back at Signal, when something similar would happen to _him_. That was actually how he and Ruby had _met_.

" . . . Alright, fine. I'll help her out. Stop twisting my arm already," Jack grumbled as he got up from his seat.

"Hey, where're you going?" Ruby cried as he suddenly walked in the opposite direction.

"Grabbing a chair," Jack said as he walked off. "And an icepack," he amended before disappearing into the crowd.

"Well _that's _dumb. Why would Jack need-"

"Oh my god! A _chair_!" Nora cut off Weiss as a white folding chair suddenly flew across the cafeteria, clattering to a loud stop at the Faunus girl's feet. For a moment everyone around the chair stopped and stared, so dumbfounded that the Faunus girl's ear managed to slip free.

" . . . The fu-"

_***WHAM***_

Before Cardin could even get a word out, a second-year sucker-punched him out of _nowhere_! Russel found his head slammed into a table by a third-year in dapper threads, another second-year dressed like a hiker nut-shot Dove with a steel-toed boot, and someone wearing a smithing apron tackled Sky clean out of his seat. In the following seconds, the whole _aisle _had broken out into a massive chaotic brawl between people of all years and occupational disposition, food, bodies, school supplies, and furniture sent flying in all directions.

In the midst of the chaos, the Faunus girl got on her hands and knees and crawled away, her presence totally forgotten. Just when she thought she was safe, she bumped into someone's shins. Fearfully looking up, the Faunus girl visibly relaxed as she took in the sight of the dark skin and monochrome-colored hair of the young man standing above her, a hand held out. Carefully taking it, she was helped to her feet, before an ice pack of all things was placed in her upturned palm.

"Everybody gets one," the Faunus said as he gave her a pat on the back and sent her off, returning to his seat with his first-year peers. "And these assholes call _me _a nigger for brawlin' out," he muttered under his breath as he went back to eating.

"Thanks, Jack," Ruby said with a smile, feeling much better now that the bullying had stopped. That and the food-court-fisticuffs were pretty entertaining.

"…Any time," Jack replied as he pat the girl on the head, the girl basking in his affections. While the others at the table went on to commend Jack for his actions, a certain blond felt all the worse, a knot of dread growing ever-larger in the pit of his stomach.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Professor Peach's class went by without consequence, if only because Jaune and Cardin didn't want _double_-dosages of "additional readings" to put up with right before Finals. It was crunch time, so _everyone _was bringing their A-Game, even if they needed to have it kicked out of them by the instructors. There had been _stories _of eccentric teachers who literally kicked the sleepiness out of students while riding around on office chairs, but that hadn't happened in _years_. Apparently.

After that came Glynda's class. The spars were less-intense as everyone was trying to avoid getting injured before finals, because even something like a sprained ankle could negatively impact your scores. Part of the scoring in Live Combat Class wasn't _only _how well you could fight, but how well you could maintain your health _between _fights; point-deductions for being half-asleep in class were most-common, if only because any lack of vigilance could get you killed in the real world. Much to some people's relief, Jack was exempted from participating until Finals, mainly because of the injuries he'd already accrued and accumulated over the week prior.

It was the final slot of the day, the match between Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester. That fight… went about as well for Jaune as people would expect with his current track record; 0 Wins, 0 Ties, and 20+ Losses. Cardin was resting his mace over his shoulder, yawning in boredom, his Aura at **100%**, not having taken a single hit, let alone a glancing blow, since the whole affair began. Jaune on the other hand was at **50% **Aura, clearly on his last legs as he leaned on his sword in exhaustion, gasping and wheezing for air.

"Get up, Jaune!" Ruby cheered on, the blond mustering his strength, swinging his blade at Cardin, only for the red-head to effortlessly dodge. With all the grace of a brick house.

"Jaune! Raise your-" _***WHAM* **_"-shield…" Pyrrha sighed as the blond got nailed by Cardin's mace in a fierce counter, the blond sent tumbling across the stage, shield flying off his arm.

"Yeah Jaune! You can do-ah hahahaha!" Jack burst out into fits of laughter mid-cheer, pounding on the railing. "Man, I can _not _say that with a straight face. Hahaha! Man, that shit is _priceless_!" he cackled as Jaune tried for an overhead swing, screaming at the top of his lungs, only for Cardin to easily block the telegraphed move with the hilt.

"This is the part where you lose," Cardin said smugly as he pushed back against his opponent, towering over him and _easily _overpowering him.

"Over my dead-guhoh!" Jaune blurted out as Cardin kneed him right in the balls, his sword falling out of his hands as he cupped his aching genitals. Hobbling around in circles, by the time Jaune came around full-circle, he saw Cardin readying his mace like a golf club, a call of- "FORE!" –echoing through the air as the red-head's mace struck the blond in his breastplate, sending him flying through the air. Rolling over and over, he eventually came to a stop, a glob of blood coughed out as he looked up, the stage's lights almost blinding him as he saw Cardin raise up his mace for a finishing blow, genre-savvy calls of- **"Finish him!" **–ringing out from the crowd like that one fighting game.

Before he could follow through however, the buzzer rang out, signifying the end of the match.

"That's enough," Glynda chided, the red-haired teen dismissively shrugging his shoulders as he perched his mace on his shoulder, leisurely walking away while Jaune picked up what was left of his dignity. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match," the blond lectured as she directed their attention to the scoreboard. Though this was directed at _everyone_, her eyes were firmly locked on the blond still clutching his balls. "Mr. Arc, it's been _weeks _now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate attack, or when it's better to move to a more… _defensive _strategy," she said trying to put it as lightly as possible. "We wouldn't want you getting gobbled up by a _Beowolf_, now would we?"

"Whiny bitch'd probably get _butt-fucked _first," Cardin chortled as he walked off. As though kicking the tar out of Jaune were some huge accomplishment.

It was not. It _really _was not.

"Remember students, Finals are right around the corner, so I want you all rested, but ready. Your final scores in this and _other_ combat-oriented classes, will determine your eligibility to compete in the Vytal Festival this fall. You're all dismissed," the woman announced as she walked off, everyone gathering their things and heading off. With Finals in a few days away, there was less monkeying about than usual.

"Jaune… Can we talk?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune finally recovered the last shred of his dignity.

As if he had any of that to begin with.

"Not right now… There's… There's something I have to do," he said looking at Jack's leaving back. "I'll talk to you later, okay?" he asked as he got to his feet and left, the Mistrali's hand extended to him as he left her behind.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"You know, if this happens a _third _time, I really will start to think this is becoming a trend," Jack said aloud as he stood on the roof of the dorms. He was of course, referring to very hard-hitting one-on-one sessions with his peers calling him out to the dorm's roof, that substantially changed the personal paradigms of those involved.

A few minutes later and a certain blond came up to the roof, eyes darting around like a frightened rabbit as he looked around every corner. His attempts at checking to see if he was followed was about as subtle as a brick through a storefront window.

"Hello, blondie. _You're _being about as subtle as a brick through a storefront window. Why'd you call me here?" the Faunus asked. "Oh, and before you start… If you even _think _about coming out of the closet to me, I _will _chuck you off the side of this building," he said jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. "Totally going to yell 'Team Three Star' when I do it too. I can _see it now_…"

_**"Team Three Star!"**_

_***Punt***_

_**"AAAAagh!"**_

_***SPLAT***_

_'Amaaazing,'_ the Faunus thought with a chuckle as the fantasy ended with either a Jaune-sized hole in the sidewalk, or paint it a very disgusting color. "Eh, I'll leave it for the night guy," he said with a lazy shrug.

"N-No it isn't anything like that!" the blond blurted out, if only so he wouldn't get thrown off the side of the building.

Jack would _do it_. He really would.

And who the heck was Team Three Star?

"_Really_? Because you calling me out to the rooftop, _alone_, doesn't inspire confidence otherwise," Jack said crossing his arms.

"Look, I couldn't let anyone else hear us talking about this, okay?"

"What was so damned important you had to call me all the way up here? I have Finals end-of-the-week, same as you, and I'd _rather _be doing anything else right now than talk to you. Like _study_. Or talk religion and politics with _Weiss_."

" . . . I want to know…" the blond began nervously, trying to find his words. And his spine.

"What is it? Spit it out! I don't have all day!" the Faunus said angrily tapping his foot.

"How did you find out?" Jaune asked.

"How'd I find out _what_?"

"How did you find out I used fake transcripts to get into Beacon?!" the blond shouted out.

" . . . Oh my goddess, you really _did _lie your way into Beacon," Jack said with a wide smile on his face, laughing mockingly with an overjoyed look on his face like the cat that caught the canary.

"But… But I thought you already _knew_…" he stammered out. "In the cafeteria you said-"

"I was just taking a shot in the dark and you totally _bought_ it!" Jack returned with a wave of his hand. "I didn't know you actually _did _lie your way into Beacon like that. Who would you even _go to _for stuff like that? _Torchwick_?"

"Wha… Bu… But I…" Jaune stammered when he realized Jack didn't have anything to back up his sentiment until he'd opened his big mouth.

"Jaune, Jaune Jaune Jaune… Jaune. Look at me. _Look at me_," Jack stated, making sure he had the blond's undivided attention. "You _do _realize you've just confessed to committing to a _very _serious federal offense, right? This sort of thing can negatively impact national _security_. And not in the _good _way."

At this, Jaune could only nod weakly.

"I mean, falsifying documents to get into a Hunter Academy… First off, I didn't think you had it in you- congrats. It takes a _real _piece of work to do something like that; taking away time and resources from someone who _deserves _to go to this school, all for your self-indulgent pursuit of being a _hero_, just so you can stand above the rank-and-file, maybe even mock them," Jack said in the form of a back-handed compliment. "If you had told this to anyone else, you'd be swapping out that school uniform for an orange jumpsuit in a _heartbeat_."

At this, Jaune began to shrink on himself.

"So the way I see it, you have one of two options," Jack stated putting his hands on his hips. "A) You can take your chances at walking around as a fugitive, _alone_, with the possibility of getting arrested and sharing a cell with some _very _intimate roommates. Or B) You can pull your _balls _out of your _vagina_ and actually _make _something of yourself. Or die before anyone finds out. Either or."

At those two options, Jaune could only whimper pitiably.

"And let's be honest, Jaune. You and prison… I mean, just _look _at you. You look like the oasis to some very _very _thirsty travelers," he said taking out his mental brush and easel, with which he went on to paint a _very _disturbing picture.

"Uuuuuuu… That metaphor makes me un_comfortable_…" Jaune whimpered, feeling very, _very _violated.

"And your _hair_…" Jack continued, Jaune covering his head with his hands. "There's just… so _much _to grab onto."

Cue more whimpering on Jaune's end.

"Four men." _***DUN***_ "At a minimum." _***DUN***_ "In _any _position." _***DU-NU-DUN***_

"S-S-So…" Jaune cried, slightly disturbed by the fact that Jack was using an App on his Pocket Scroll to dole out contextually-appropriate sound effects. "Are you going to tell someone then?" he asked as the weight of his entire world started coming down around his ears, his hands going to his most intimate place that he did _not _want violated.

"No, nonononono… _I'm _not going to say _anything_," he said much to the blond's surprise.

"You're… You're _not_?" Jaune asked, a bit of hope at the end of the tunnel.

"Nope!"

"Why-"

"Because watching you twist in the wind will be _sooooo _much more fun," Jack said without an ounce of shame, Jaune's glimmer of hope taking an instant nosedive. "But let me make something _very _clear," he said leaning forward slightly and narrowing his eyes, which had now turned blood red, a blood-like miasma rising off his body. "You're free to go off and get yourself killed at _any _time, no skin off my nose. But if you ever, and I mean _ever_, get someone from Team Ruby or Juniper killed because of _your_ fuck-up-"

"What about Cardinal or Dirge?"

"What _about _them?" Jack asked with a deadpan. "Anyway, as I was saying, if you get anyone from Team Ruby or Juniper killed because of _your _fuck-up, you'd better be_lieve _you'll be spending the next ten-to-fifteen in butt-pounding lock-down with the largest, hairiest, _sweatiest_-"

"Stopit, stopit, stopit!" Jaune cried out as he tried not to visualize the _very _disturbing picture the Faunus was mentally painting.

"Ass-fuckers on this side of the continent. Or the _next _continent. Or the next one," the Faunus said as he continued to paint a _very _disturbing picture for the panicking blond. "So… Do we understand one another?"

"Y… Yes sir…" Jaune groaned, his head hung in shame.

"Very good," Jack said as he began to walk away. "And who knows. If you make something of yourself before you get busted, you might only get _five_-to-ten instead of one-and-a-half-decades of butt-pounding-"

"Can you just go now?!" Jaune cried, his sanity reaching the end of its rope.

"Heyheyheyhey! That is _not _the kind of tone you take to someone with your deepest darkest secret in their back pocket," Jack chided, pointing his finger at Jaune and lecturing him like some kind of child. "Well…" the Faunus said as he clapped imaginary dust off of his hands. "_Byyyye_…" he bid farewell in a rather _ominous _tone as he left the roof, leaving Jaune to stew in his own juices.

'_Dammit…'_ Jaune cursed as he punched the ground, completely oblivious to the broken skin on his knuckles. _'I jumped to conclusions… and now Jack knows my secret.' _Looking to the sky, he felt compelled to ask- "How could today get any worse?"

"Heh heh heh. Oh _Jaune_," a familiar voice said in a sing-song tone.

"Cardin!" Jaune gawped as his tormentor pulled himself up onto the roof from the floor below.

"I couldn't help but overhear the two of you from my dorm room. I have to say, sneaking your way into Beacon? I never thought you'd be such a rebel. I'm impressed," he said in a way that was _clearly _a back-handed compliment.

"Please, Cardin, _please _don't tell anyone!" he said in a begging tone.

"Jaune, come on! I'd _never_ rat on a friend like that."

"A… a friend?"

"Of _course_!" the red-head said as he easily pulled the blond into a headlock. "We're _friends _now, Jauney-boy. And the way _I _see it, as long as you're there for me when I need you, we'll be friends for a _looooong _time," he said releasing the blond from the headlock, gasping for air. "That being said… I _really_ don't have time for those extra readings Dr. Oobleck gave us today. Think you could take care of that for me, _buddy_?" he said rubbing on Jaune's head like he were some kind of animal. For lack of a response, he replied- "That's what I thought," he said heading back to the edge. "Don't worry, Jaune. You're secret's safe with me," he said with a chuckle as he lowered himself back into the room.

Left with that ultimatum hanging over his head, feeling like an animal on the end of a leash, Jaune could only think of one thing to mentally articulate.

'_**GOOOOOD! FUCKING! DAAAAMMIIIIT!'**_

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Jack's (low) opinion of Jaune, same as mine, does **_**not **_**fall under the realm of "bashing" because every point he has made is completely true. Jaune, having falsified his transcripts to get into Beacon, and passing the exam by luck alone, means he is in fact, taking away time and resources from someone who **_**deserves **_**to go to Beacon. The whole thing ultimately boils down to the fact that the teachers are **_**wasting **_**their time and resources on someone who isn't even **_**qualified**_** to be a Huntsmen-in-**_**training **_**in the **_**first **_**place. I guess that's why so many stories have Jaune replaced with someone else. Then again, the most RWBY-crossover stories I read are Naruto/RWBY so that could be a bit biased.**

**Also, Jaune's lying and fraudulent actions remind me of Hercule after the Cell Saga (I died a little on the inside when everyone LITERALLY began worshiping him as a God in ****Dragonball Super****), so that may be **_**another **_**reason for me thinking this way. And unlike Hercule, Jaune doesn't have a hot daughter that marries a world-saving "nerd" in the end.**

**The scene in Dr. Oobleck's class was interesting to write for, because I got to put in a lot of extra dialogue, as well as a Reference or two. What came **_**after **_**wasn't originally going to make it into the final draft, but I felt that part of the chapter needed a little more flushing-out, so a little world-building later, and we've got ourselves a nice little narrative before the Lunch Rush. Also, Dr. Oobleck's eccentricities remind me of Dr. Mordin Solus from Mass Effect, and years later that's still a fun game for me that' aged half-decently.  
**

**Speaking of which (not about Mass Effect), I'd like to think I painted the real-world-esque interpersonal politics between Faunus very realistically. Unlike most RWBY stories where the MC goes out of their way to help Velvet and gets in trouble in the process, Jack has a very credible reason for **_**not **_**helping her; and it's not like anyone else was rushing to help her out in canon.**

**It was fun adding some dialogue to Jaune's fight _*cough*cough*_as-if_*cough*_ with Cardin, but what I **_**most **_**enjoyed was the chat between Jack &amp; Jaune. Just a little something to clear the air between them, and set things up for the rest of the "Jaunedice Arc".**

**Anyway, if you have questions, comments, concerns, or anything you just feel like you want to say to me, don't hesitate to leave it in a Review. Good or bad advice, as long as it's credible, even bad comments, are good comments.**


	24. World of Flavor

"Sooooo…" Jack groused a few days later in the cafeteria at breakfast. "I notice Jaune's been hanging out with Cardin a lot lately. Anyone wanna talk about that?"

"Oh I'm sure Jaune knows _exactly _what he's doing," Pyrrha said with a frown and narrow eyes. Of course, the stink-eye she was doling out, was purely for the Faunus sitting across from her.

Last week she had followed Jaune to the roof after he'd called Jack there, on the off-chance that her crush was "coming out of the closet" to the older Faunus; i.e. her worst nightmare. As such, she'd overheard how Jaune had used false transcripts to get into Beacon, and quite frankly, it made her very cross that Jaune came out with it to _Jack_ instead of _her_. Not just because she was his teammate, but his _partner _as well.

She knew it wasn't Jack's fault, and she knew it was wrong to blame him for something he had no control over; Goddess knows he got enough of that because of what his predecessors did during the Faunus Rights Revolution. However, based upon the grin he was shooting her way, he was probably taking her animosity in stride, being the cat that caught the canary with the best inside joke of Freshman Year.

Of course, his grin may've also had something to do with how he walked right by her moments after she stopped pressing her ear to the door, the red-head looking like she'd gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar as he said- _**"Hi Pyrrha~ Bye Pyrrha~"**_

"That's weird," Nora replied. "Does Jaune have Stockholm Syndrome or something?"

"If he did, that would imply Jaune is in some way Cardin's prisoner," Ren said as he sipped his tea.

"Yes… It's not like he's done something _illegal _or anything," Pyrrha said through grit teeth. She had mixed feelings about that she was still trying to sort out. If _Jaune _had told her, that would've been one thing, but she had to find out after pressing her ear to the door. She was sure Jaune had his _reasons _for lying his way into Beacon, but until she learned those for herself, she didn't know whether to condemn him to his self-wrought fate or not.

And it wasn't like Jack's words, albeit harsh, were _wrong _or anything. Jaune _literally _stole someone else's slot at Beacon just so _he _could go instead. As such, he _was _stealing time and resources away from that very same person, who even with the smallest amount of effort would've been a much better Huntsman-in-training than the fraudulent blond, guaranteed.

And who knows. In another time, another life, _Jack _could've been the **J** in JNPR if management found out Jaune's transcripts were phony.

No point in thinking on _that _though.

"Yeah. I mean, it's not like he's a scum-of-the-earth _criminal _or anything. That'd just be _silly_," Jack said with a smile. Clearly, he was enjoying this… just-the-right-amount. Maybe a little more than that.

"Yeah, and if he were, I'd punch his lights out," Yang said punching the palm of her hand, completely missing the sub-tones being exchanged between him and Pyrrha.

"I'm sure Jaune will clean up his act _eventually_," Pyrrha sighed as she picked at her omelet. "Hopefully."

"You gonna eat that?" Jack asked pointing at the red-head's tray, which had half an omelet, some sausages, and a bowl of fruit on it.

" . . . Take it," Pyrrha sighed as she slid the tray over, not very hungry. As Jack dug into what she hadn't eaten, she thought to ask- "Aren't you concerned? About eating after another person I mean."

"I've got a working immune system, and I have antibodies for over fifty different types of poison on top of my own _natural _immunity," Jack said matter-of-factly. "A couple Human-borne germs aren't going to be any problem, and on the Frontier, it's practically a _sin _to waste food," he huffed in disdain as he watched students toss entire tray-fulls of food into the garbage. "Besides, I have very high energy requirements. If I don't put fuel in the tank, my engine won't run."

"Speaking of which… How much energy did I make you expend in our fight last week?" the red-head asked, the others' interests piqued at the question. She could still feel some of the aches from where he'd kicked and/or punched her, but she wanted to know how close she'd come to wearing him down.

"Pyrrha, I've got energy for days."

"Energy for _days_?"

"Energy for days," he said between bites of food. "As such, that little tussle we had wasn't even a drop in the bucket."

" . . . You're _exaggerating_," the red-head called him out with crossed arms.

"Girl, you haven't even _seen _what I can really do."

"Your old _team _seemed to have you on the ropes."

"That's because I was sleep-deprived all week from being forced to sleep outside like some sort of animal. What's _your _excuse?"

"I wasn't part of that conflict."

"Which is why you have no right to comment," Jack said flippantly as he finished the contents of Pyrrha's tray, only for Ruby to place what was left of hers in their place. "Ruby. Eat your vegetables," the Faunus said without missing a beat as he passed the small salad bowl back, the red-tipped brunette letting out an indignant huff as she picked at her salad.

"Thank you, Jack."

"You're welcome, Yang."

_'It's so weird how synchronized the two can be,' _Weiss &amp; Blake thought at how-well Jack and Yang complimented one another when it came to Ruby's continued health and well-being; like parents doting on a child. They then thought about what would happen if the two of them _did _have a kid together, and the strength of that hypothetical half-Human-half-Faunus progeny _terrified _the two of them.

_'Must... not... let them... have sex/copulate,' _Blake/Weiss thought in synergy as they shuddered in fright.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So remember students, if you find yourself outmatched by an Ursa, try to run downhill. Their short stumpy legs will cause them to trip and lose their footing," Professor Port narrated as he quickly reviewed common strategies for fighting established species of Grimm.

"_You're _seriously_ writing that down?" _Jack whispered as the heiress off to his side wrote down the professor's words verbatim.

"_Yes! This could very well be on our final!" _the heiress hissed back, quietly enough that Professor Port wouldn't hear her over his own talking.

"_I'd think shit like this would be common knowledge and that you wouldn't _have_ to write it _down_," _Jack deadpanned.

"Mr. Braxton!" Professor Port called out, the heiress at the Faunus' side flinching.

"Yes?"

"Would you be ever so kind as to open up a window? It's getting a mite stuffy in here," Professor Port stated as he fanned himself.

"Sure thing," Jack replied with a shrug as he got up from his seat. As the professor went back to lecturing about Ursa and bears, Jack went to the window nearest the front wall and cracked it open, immediately letting in a cool breeze before making his way back to his desk.

However, as he turned to walk back, he froze mid-step, becoming completely still for several seconds, his nostrils flaring. Whipping his head back around, he opened the windows full-kilter, a slightly-stronger wind blowing through the classroom, the smell of cut grass and flowers coming in from the school air. The Faunus' head began to jerk around, both form side-to-side and up-to-down, his nostrils flaring and his eyes clamped shut, his olfactory sensors kicking into full gear as he filtered out all unnecessary odors.

"Mr. Braxton, is something the matter?" Professor Port asked as his student continued to look about outside, his actions catching the attention of some of the students in class.

"Professor Port, sorry to skip out on you, but I need to meet with Beacon's IGO branch. _Right now_!" the monochrome-haired teen said out of nowhere, a few eyebrows rising in confusion.

" . . . Oh-ho! I see," the man said nodding his head in understanding, much to the others' shock. "I should've recognized from the outset what you were doing. How neglectful of me. Well, happy hunting! I'll let the other instructors know of your absence."

"Thanks a lot, professor. Later guys!" Jack said over his shoulder to his team before suddenly jumping out the window.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So… _That _was weird," Ruby spoke up as the group of RWBY and JNPR got in line for lunch. Well, _most _of JNPR anyway.

"What was?" Yang asked.

"What Jack said in class, and how he got Professor Port to just let him out early," the red-clad girl hummed.

"What Jack said about his business with the IGO?" Pyrrha asked with a tilt of her head. As far as the red-head knew, Jack's involvement with them only extended to his doctorate in Poultry Science. She didn't think he was part of _that _world as well.

"Yeah. You know who they are?" she asked.

"You… You're saying you _don't _know?" the older red-head asked in shock.

"For the love of… How can you _not _know about the IGO!?" Weiss all but shrieked. "They're only the _largest_ producer and distributor of wholesale food products the world-over! Not knowing about the IGO is like saying you don't know what _Dust _is! What on Remnant is _wrong _with you?!"

"Oh god, it's happening again!" Ruby cried as she leapt into her sister's arms.

"Ugh… Ignorance must truly be bliss," Weiss groaned as she rubbed her temples. "I'm going to have to _explain _this to you, aren't I?"

"Yes, please," Ruby sighed with a bit of shame.

"Fine, first off-"

_***WHAM***_

"I'M BACK BITCHES!" a familiar voice shouted as the main door was suddenly kicked in. Teams RWBY and JNPR looking over to the main door, were surprised to see that Jack was back. His attire now consisted of a tight muscle olive drab jumpsuit with numerous cargo pockets across his body and down his legs, the sleeves rolled up to the bicep. He had brown hiking boots on his feet instead of sandals, was carrying a cooler under each arm and in each hand, while Yang's infinity scarf around his neck added a warm splash of color to his otherwise drab outfit.

Following behind him into the cafeteria were many other people the two Teams had seen around Beacon. Some were wearing similar jumpsuits, others looked like hikers or park rangers, but what they all had in common was they were carrying coolers under their arms and/or in their hands, while some had dead animals of all kinds thrown over their shoulders.

"Hey, guys. How's lunch?" he asked coming up to the group.

"Jack, where have you been?!" Weiss demanded. "And why are you tracking mud into the cafeteria like that!?"

"Uh… because I just got back from someplace _muddy_. Duh," Jack said with a deadpan as he set his coolers down.

"Why'd you leave class like that?" Ruby asked. "And why'd Professor Port _and _Doctor Oobleck excuse your absence?"

"Because of _this_," he said with a smile as he held up a plastic card.

" . . . What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"My GID. That translates into Gourmet Identification for you non-Bishoku-ya."

"Gesundheit," Ruby replied.

"Bishoku-ya translates into Gourmet Food Provider," Ren stated as he drank his tea. "I never would've thought you'd been part of _that _world as well."

"Hey, I went through a _lot _in the last decade," Jack said shrugging his shoulders.

'_That's putting it mildly,' _Yang sighed.

"How many jobs have you _had_?" Weiss asked with a raised brow. She finds out he was a Sweeper, and then that he has a doctorate in Poultry Science, but now he's apparently a Gourmet Food Provider? What _else _had he been doing before coming to Beacon?

"Enough," the Faunus gave a non-committal reply as Ruby took the card from his hand, looking it over. There was a picture of him on the left, some personal information to the side of it, and a data strip on the back.

"What do the stars mean?" Ruby asked looking at the card. In particular the three tiny bronze stars along the top of the card to the right of the picture. To the right of those three bronze stars were seven more star-shaped slots, but those were blacked out.

"Those represent my ranking in the IGO as a Bishoku-ya."

"What _is _the IGO exactly? Weiss was about to explain what it was, but you kinda interrupted her," Ruby stated. Nora off to the side tried to reach for one of the coolers, but Ren smacked the back of her hand with his spoon.

"The IGO stands for International Gourmet Organization. Originally they started out as a merchant's guild after the Great War, who specialized in transporting Ingredients and other food-stuffs all over the world, bringing new tastes and flavors to parts of the world that had never experienced them before, assisting in the spread of culture worldwide while simultaneously creating a demand for their services. However, as preservation technology improved, they soon created the first _wholesale_ market for Ingredients, and when molecular gastronomy caught its stride, they began _researching _and even _cultivating _new and unique Ingredients through things like selective or cross-breeding. They later devised the first hydroponics facilities in order to facilitate mass-production of fruit and vegetables to safely produce food _within _a Kingdom's boundaries, which were able to yield greater results than traditional methods which required large tracts of land which often had to be defended at all times from the Creatures of Grimm," the heiress explained in length. "As a result of the IGO's _distribution _of food, the number of conflicts started because of resources has gone down, so they're a very large contributor to the peacetimes we're all able to enjoy."

"What she said," Jack added. "Of course, the right hand of what would come to be known as the IGO were the Bishoku-ya, the Gourmet Food Providers. They were called that because during the Renaissance of Color, _anything _that wasn't bland and flavorless counted as gourmet, before more-conventional definitions for the standard were established. Bishoku-ya would essentially go out into the Frontier and gather Ingredients people had never _seen _before, that lived in the isolated parts of the world that remained untouched by Human hands. To accompany that, the Royal Chefs who no longer had employers opened up restaurants, creating the industry after finding themselves free to make profitable gain for themselves."

"What about the stars?" Ruby asked as she drew attention back to his GID.

"The stars represent one's ranking within the Bishoku-ya, one star being the lowest of the low, while ten means you're basically King of the Rock. Stars are added to your ranking at the IGO's discretion, usually in response to the gradual increase of Ingredients with higher Capture Levels you're able to capture or cultivate."

"Capture Levels?"

"I'll get to that in a minute. I'm not done explaining the ranking system," Jack stated. "As I was saying, the number of stars and their color dictate your standing within the ranks of the Bishoku-ya. Rookie-Class can have anywhere from one to three stars, all of which are colored bronze. When you're upgraded to Journeyman-Class, those stars are upgraded to silver, and cover stars four through six. Elite-Class have seven through nine stars which are upgraded to gold, while Master-Class has all _platinum _stars."

"How close are you to Master-Class?" she asked as she turned the card over in her hand. She could see a hologram of sorts in it, which basically looked like a golden star doing the splits, and the top fifth was really small. In the center there was a circle with a stylized **IGO**, a fork to the left, a knife to the right, a spoon across the bottom, and a pair of chopsticks across the top.

"Haha-Not even," Jack deadpanned. "It's easy to get to the top of the Rookie-Class, but the higher up the ranks you go, the more difficult it is to get promoted. Only the IGO's top brass and the Shinten'no, possess ten Platinum stars, and they're among some of the strongest people on the _planet_."

"Why would you have to be one of the strongest people on the planet just to get _food_?" Yang asked skeptically.

"If you'll give Jack a minute, I'm sure he'd be willing to explain what Capture Levels are," Weiss interjected. As someone who had been enjoying gourmet Ingredients her whole life, she could admire the sheer _beauty _that it took to form the Capture Level system in all its splendor. "Continue. Ruby's quite ignorant about the world of flavor, so you'll have to explain this to her like she's _retarded_."

"Hey!" Ruby squawked objectively.

"Retarded isn't the word I'd _use_ per-se, but I'll dumb it down for her as much as I can," Jack replied.

"Thank you… Hey!" Ruby squawked again.

"Capture Levels are the measuring system used by the IGO to dictate the difficulty of successfully acquiring or cultivating an Ingredient," Jack said interrupting Ruby's outburst. "Things like an animal's fighting strength, the dangers inherent to its habitat, the strength of neighboring beasts in its ecosystem, or even the difficulty of successfully preparing or even _eating _ingredients are all considerations made when assigning a number to an Ingredient's Capture Level. Conventionally, Capture Levels go from Level 1 at the lowest, to Level 100 at the highest within the mapped world, though Ingredients whose inherent dangers surpass all known expectations are labeled as **Capture Level Immeasurable**. Likewise, there are also ingredients considered **Below Capture Level 1** that are extremely easy to get and pose little to no danger. Of course, Capture Levels don't always refer _only _to fighting strength, but also to its rarity, as well as any obstacles placed in your way like distance-traveled, and that level can also grow with an Ingredient's age. That being said, an Ingredient that's **Capture Level 1 **is harrowing enough to require ten professional non-Auric hunters armed with shotguns. Beyond **Capture Level 3**, most conventional arms cease being useful at all."

"If something can put up that kind of a fight, why not use Cyan Dust on it to pre-refrigerate it?" Ruby asked.

"While Dust-powered rounds _can _be used to more-easily subjugate Ingredients, that's actually quite counter-intuitive, as it completely and _invasively_ destroys the good flavor of the Ingredients and makes them almost completely inedible. That's why alternatives like gunpowder are used when hunting low-level Ingredients. Beyond **Capture Level 3**, and the only alternative is a Bishoku-ya of sufficient physical strength or mental acuity to subjugate it through either method. Grimm are one thing, but _Ingredients _are a whole different ballpark when you can't use Dust. Most ingredients aren't too keen on giving up their meat and squishy guts that easily."

"I don't get it," Ruby sighed, unable to wrap her head around the concept. **Capture Level 1** required at least ten professional non-Auric hunters with shotguns? Anything beyond **Capture Level 3** and most conventional firearms ceased being useful at all? She didn't get it at _all_. Guns were the answer to _everything_!

Ruby Rose didn't need luck. She had ammo!

"Maybe this will help clear things up," he said placing one of the coolers in the middle of the table. Undoing the latch, as he opened it up, a cool mist began to spread out across the table. This was quickly followed by an aromatic explosion that smelled unmistakably like cherry. Held within the box were many cherries sitting atop a bed of ice, each cherry glistening like jewels. "Do you know what these are?"

"Um… Cherries?" Ruby asked.

"Close. They're actually a unique Ingredient known as 'Hide &amp; Cherreek'," he said holding one up. Between the aroma and how they glistened, Teams RWBY and JNPR founds themselves gulping slightly. "_Ordinary _cherries have a capture level of **Below Capture Level 1**, meaning anyone with a pulse can gather them. However, _this _type of cherry is special. The name comes from its unique ability to remain completely transparent until fully ripe; so transparent in fact that they're completely invisible. Because the times of the year that they become ripe and non-transparent _change _each year, the only way to know for sure that they've ripened at all is with a visual confirmation. However, what most don't know is that before they begin losing their transparency, they let out a very unique fragrance; one I'd gotten quite familiar with in my youth because my mom and I would go out and pick these at peak ripeness. My three Bronze stars might not be that big a deal compared to the higher rankings, but that and my past capture records were _just _enough to convince management to lend us a couple Bullheads and mount an expedition to the other side of the Emerald Forest. As you can see, it paid off," he said gesturing to the other Bishoku-ya-in-Training scattered throughout he cafeteria, sharing their quarry with friends and teammates, blissed-out looks on all their faces. "Because I was able to get us out there so quickly, most of the Freshmen and a _few _of the Sophomores were able to capture these Hide &amp; Cherreeks at their _peak _ripeness, which elevated them to **Capture Level 5**, quite a few notches above _ordinary _cherries."

"Why would these be _above _**Capture Level 1**?" Ruby asked at the pretty, but otherwise unimpressive fruit. "They look like ordinary cherries to me," he added, slight drooling notwithstanding.

"Well pop one in and find out," Jack said tossing one to Ruby. It was a testament to the trust she had in Jack that she popped the berry into her mouth without hesitation, popping the stem before she began chewing.

"Hmmm…" Ruby hummed as she chewed it. "I don't see what the big deal is. To tell you the truth it's pretty blan-" _***Ba-bump***_ "SO GOOOOOOD!" she suddenly squealed as she held her cheeks, tears of joy streaming down her face. "At first it tastes really bland, but then the taste of cherries _sneaks up_ on you! It's like a flavor artillery strike just hit my tongue out of _nowhere_!" she said making grandiose motions with her entire body. "I've never tasted anything with so much flavor before!"

"Is this really your first time eating anything beyond** Capture Level 1**?" Jack asked as he began tossing Hide &amp; Cherreeks to the others. Blake, Yang, and Nora all reacted much like Ruby, sans the grandiose motions because they didn't have the same lack of shame as the youngest girl there. Weiss was much more refined about it, slowly savoring the taste as it rushed across her taste buds. Pyrrha, who had likely gone to many fancy parties before with the best food, was composed as well, but allowed a smile to pull at her features as she closed her eyes in bliss. Ren's reaction was the calmest, almost zen as he squeezed the juices into his tea before drinking deeply before popping the remains. "Pretty good, huh?"

"Mmmm_MM_! The best!" Ruby squealed as she reached for more, only for Yang to slap the back of her hand.

"That's _rude_, Ruby. Ask first," Yang chastised.

"May I please have more Hide &amp; Cherreeks?"

"Yes you may."

"Say thank you, Ruby."

"Thank you, Ruby."

"Not what I had in mind, but okay," Yang said with a shrug as Jack deposited a handful of Hide &amp; Cherreeks into Ruby's waiting hands, the girl smiling brightly as she indulged in this new flavor. Deciding to have a little fun with her teammate, Yang nudged Jack in the arm. His attention turned to her, the blond grinned cheekily as she presented a Hide &amp; Cherreek stem tied into a knot, waggling her eyebrows his way. Jack popped a pair of Hide &amp; Cherreeks into his mouth as well. His tongue rolling over them for a few seconds; when he parted his lips he had the two tied into a _constrictor _knot of all things.

"You cheeky bastard," the blond grinned in good nature.

"_The _bastard," Jack replied with a grin as he popped another Hide &amp; Cherreek into his mouth. Off to the side, Jaune sighed dejectedly as he played bus boy to Team CRDL, who were trying to figure out what the big deal was. However, after the ass-kicking the other day they got from the Bishoku-ya-in-Training, the weapon smiths, and even the _tailors _after a flying folding chair inexplicably drew the surrounding aisles into a violent stupor, they didn't press their luck at _stealing _any produce. Especially after some poor sap found his hand impaled to the table with a pair of reinforced chopsticks.

Poor sap would be stuck there until after lunch when one of the teachers finally found him.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Professor Peach's class went by without much incident. The day's class was actually a little more laid-back than usual as he talked about Ingredients that they could look forward to once they set out beyond the Kingdom's borders. Then again, it may've had something to do with the cherry tart he'd been eating the whole time, topped with what Ruby suspected to be one of the Hide &amp; Cherreeks brought back by the Freshmen Bishoku-ya, made by one of its chefs, possibly a student. Meanwhile, Jack was holding a piece of a tree branch with ash-colored bark between his teeth, while rubbing some kind of metallic powder into the tips of his middle finger and thumb.

Like clockwork, Glynda's class came around right after Professor Peach's. Before class even began, Jack spoke to Glynda and asked for the opportunity to fight, albeit one of the weaker opponents on the roster. When asked for his reason, he simply replied something about having eaten a whole bunch of Red Hair Boar up in the mountains earlier with the other Freshman, and that he had to work some of it off. And for some reason, he was twirling that same branch in his fingers the entire time. Surprisingly, Glynda actually agreed; it _probably _didn't have anything to do with the glistening cherry pie in her hands at the time.

It wasn't like there were any _rules _against eating in the middle of class for either the faculty or the student body, but just a matter of whether or not it would get in the way of teaching or learning.

Anyway… The spars came and went. Yang fought against Pyrrha, Blake fought against Ren, Weiss fought against Nora, Ruby fought against Dove, and Jaune… flailed angrily in Russel's general direction before getting a double-kick to the face. At the end of it all came Jack against Cardin, the prior still wearing what he'd worn up in the mountains. At the very least he no longer trailed in mud.

"So, the big bad badger wants to fight little old me?" Cardin asked resting his mace on his shoulder.

"I asked Glynda for an easy fight to work some of this boar off," Jack said patting his stomach. "I'd assumed she'd let me fight Jaune, him being the bottom-rung and all, but I guess that would've been _too _easy."

"Tch," Cardin scowled at being called weak, albeit indirectly. The timer hitting zero and the buzzer started the match, Cardin funneled his orange-colored Aura through his mace and into the material within the arrangement of blades. A wave of fiery explosions dancing across the ground, Jack easily side-hopped the telegraphed attack. The red-head rushed forward and swung again, a cascading shockwave rippling through the air with each missed swing as Jack bobbed and weaved around the attacks. Cardin, lacking any form of long-range weaponry, could only press the attack. Whenever it looked like he'd gotten Jack pinned against the barrier, he'd disappear in a blur before re-appearing behind him with Shundo, and the process would repeat. For several minutes Jack would dodge Cardin's attacks, a vacant look on his face as though he weren't even _thinking _about anything, only _doing _it.

"Yawn," Jack sighed as he scratched his stomach.

"If that's the way you're going to be, then let's turn up the _heat_!" Cardin shouted as he tightened his grip on his lance, the red crystal at the end glowing bright red before the blades suddenly lit up in flames. "Oh yeah! Now we're cooking with fire!" he shouted with glee as he charged at the Faunus. Swinging it in powerful arcs, Jack stepped backwards in a slow circle around the stage, bending at the waist to dodge each swing, flaming mace-blades inches away from bare skin.

"Turn up the heat? Cooking with fire? Really, that's the _best _you could come up with?" Jack asked as he lazily dodged the attacks. Whenever Cardin tried kicking at the Faunus' feet, he'd simply raise them up and over like he were playing hop scotch. "Even Yang can come up with better puns than that. And she's _Yang_."

"Hey!" said blond shouted from the audience.

"Can it, Barb."

"Who the hell is _Barb_?" Cardin asked.

"Who the hell is _Tucker_?" Jack asked back.

"How the fuck should _I _know!?" Cardin cried, wondering if the Faunus was just screwing with him now.

"This heat's annoying me," Jack grumbled as he rolled his right sleeve up further. Clenching his fist, the scars running around his arm begin to glow like embers. That arm soon began to vibrate, the skin turning a dark maroon color as he used Shivering. However, what was different from last time was that his arm suddenly lit on fire. Cardin, having had enough of getting mocked by his opponent, swung his mace in an overhead shot, only for the Faunus to catch it with his flame coated hand.

"What!?" Cardin gawped as the flames wreathing his mace were stripped away, steam rising off of Jack's arm as the flames gave way. Little did he know that Jack's elevated temperature was creating a low-pressure area that was drawing the air away from his mace.

"I'm getting bored, you know," Jack said dismissively as he pulled the ash-colored branch from before out of his chest pocket. "Damn I need a smoke," he said as he snapped his left thumb and middle finger, a spark jumping from between his fingertips and lighting the end of the branch ablaze, puffs of smoke leaving his lips.

"Mr. Braxton. Put that cigar out this _instant_!" Glynda shouted from the sidelines. She didn't have _many _things that couldn't be done during a duel in her class, but smoking was most certainly _not _one of those things.

"Alright, fine, I'll get rid of it," Jack said with a shrug. Jack _did _in fact put it out, just not in the way she was expecting.

Instead of stomping it out on the ground, Jack wrapped his lips around the tree branch and _finished _it, the bright orange tip racing up the ash-colored branch before it nearly disappeared between his lips, tiny puffs of smoke poking out of his nostrils. His abdomen suddenly contracting, Jack puckered his lips before releasing a thin stream of thick black smoke right at Cardin, the force of the emission so great it actually forced him a step back as it buffeted his breastplate.

As Cardin flailed his arms, hacking and wheezing, Jack took the still-lit stub of tree branch between his fingers before flicking it. The smoldering wood flying into the smoke, when it struck Cardin's chestplate, bright red sparks scattered, the cloud of ash igniting with a loud _***FWOOOOOOM***_

"AAAAH!" Cardin cried as the smoke cloud violently detonated around him, depleting his Aura almost instantly. Jack had already turned and walked away as the smoke began to clear, his opponent face-down as Glynda called the match, his hair singed and his armor covered in soot.

"There. Cigar's out," Jack said plainly as he hopped off the stage, his opponent twitching from the force of the explosion.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After class ended, Team RWBY returned to their room just in time to see Jack _leaving _the room, a rolled-up blanket, a box, a bag, and a _filled _bag tucked under his arms as he made his way to the roof. Following after him, they watched as he rolled out the thick green blanket and popped a squat, before placing the bag on his right, the box on his left, and the smaller bag in the middle. Working the mouth of the smaller bag open, he then reached into the larger bag before pulling out what appeared to be a broken tree branch, colored ashen-gray. Flicking out the claw from his right thumb, he began to whittle it down, depositing the shavings into the bag in front of him. Once the branch in his hand had become more of a cigar-shape, he carefully placed it in the box to his left, before taking another branch from the bag on his right, and repeated the process.

"Hey uh… Jack?" Ruby said poking her head out the door. "Can we have a word with you?"

"Sure. Come on up," he said not even looking up from his word, effortlessly rolling the branch in his hand after each shave. "What'd you want to talk about?"

"Well… um… I don't know if you know this, but…" Ruby started, a little uncomfortable with telling people how to live their lives. "Cigarettes are bad for you! So don't smoke them!" she said jabbing a finger at the box of "cigars" at his feet.

"Ruby, _cigarettes _are bad for you. Cigar Tree _branches _on the other hand, are not," Jack deadpanned.

"And why is that?" the red-hooded girl pouted with her hands on her hips.

"Cigarettes contain forty-three carcinogenic compounds and four-hundred toxins, including but not limited to nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT," Jack answered. "Cigar Tree _branches _contain only cellulose, _traces _of nicotine, and natural animal repellents. The IGO says they're perfectly safe in moderation, as well as the RHO."

"RHO?"

"Remnant Health Organization."

"If that's true, why doesn't _everybody _use Cigar Tree branches?" Yang asked. True, she drank even before she was at the legal limit, but Taiyang drilled it into her head _never _to start smoking. Also, that shit ruined your skin, teeth, and hair, and she wouldn't be having _any _of that.

"Because you have to go beyond the Kingdom's borders to get to them, and they don't grow like weeds," Jack answered plainly. "Also, the IGO has had _limited _success in cultivating them within the Biotopes, and even then, the taste and animal-repelling properties fall short of the genuine article. Add in the cost, and cigarettes are a cheaper alternative."

"But if cigarettes have _that many _chemicals and poison in them, why do people smoke them?" Ruby asked.

"People by nature are self-destructive. Just look at those guys who talked smack about my primary birth-giver," Jack answered.

"I've been meaning to ask this since lunch. How long have you worked for the IGO?" Blake asked curiously. Until he'd come back to school with loads of other Bishoku-ya-in-Training carrying cooler-fulls of Hide &amp; Cherreeks, she never would've thought he'd been part of that line of work.

"Eh, 'bout four years, give or take," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hm. I see, I see," Ruby hummed. "_Why _did you start working for the IGO? There's nothing _wrong _with finding work, I'm just wondering what the _story _is behind it," she said popping a squat in front of where he was working, the others taking their own seats on the blanket as well. Even _Weiss _sat with her legs crossed, but was really insistent on flattening the creases in her combat skirt.

"Well… You all know how I spent a year in Skyrim, right?"

"We've been told that before, yes."

"Well, I didn't know it at the time, but what I did with the Nords every day as part of my routine just so I wouldn't starve, apparently, there was big _money _to be made off of going out into the Frontier and bringing back loads of food for the starving masses," he answered.

"If people want food, can't they just go to the grocery store?" Ruby asked. Weiss slapped her forehead at the girl's ignorant statement.

"And where do you think the _grocery stores _get their food from?" Jack asked in turn. "Less than five percent of Remnant's surface is _habitable _by Humans. The rest is in a tenuous struggle against the Creatures of Grimm which relentlessly attack anything without natural barriers around it. There _are _places within the safe confines of the Kingdoms that raise food, but those facilities on their own aren't enough to keep everyone fed. That's where the Bishoku-ya come in."

"…So they go out and collect the food we don't have the space to raise for ourselves?" Blake asked. In all honesty she'd never considered where the _food _she ate came from. Earning Faunus Equal Rights was just always more important than that. As a result, she didn't have time for more material pursuits. Like gourmet Ingredients.

"Pretty much, yeah. The bulk of the food on the wholesale market comes from the Frontier, where the oceans and the forests and the grasslands raise their Ingredients free-range. In some regards, the work of a Bishoku-ya is more-important than the work of a Huntsman."

"How could getting _food _be more-important?" Yang huffed. She took _pride _in the fact that she could punch "all the things".

"Hungry people are cranky people. Cranky people get angry. Angry people lash out in violence. Violence breeds resentment, and resentment draws out the Creatures of Grimm," Jack tallied off. "All the little distractions like food, music, movies, and video games are all necessary tool to _distract _people from the looming threat of Grimm which would cause their thoughts to darken. That's why any form of impetus for the arts is heavily motivated in schools and elsewhere. Because if people aren't _thinking _about the Grimm and their imminent death in the event of an attack, it's less-likely that they'll come. It just so happens that _food _is the most-important, _and _delicious, of those distractions."

"So basically, the harder it is to find an Ingredient in the market, the more money you make for bringing it back in?" Ruby asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack answered. "I started collecting food with my mom from the time I could walk, so I know how to forage well-enough. Also, I grew _up _on the taste of Hide &amp; Cherreeks, so that's how I knew the scent they gave of when they were about to reach full ripeness. The sooner you harvest them when they lose their transparency, the better the taste. As I'm sure you're all aware."

"Well, I guess if we ever take any missions outside the Kingdom, we'll know who to turn to for food," Yang said with a grin. "Those Hide &amp; Cherreeks _were _pretty good, so now I'm _really _curious about what kind of food is out there, waiting to be eaten."

"That question _is _the impetus for most Gourmet Hunters going into that line of work, yes."

"Then if that's the case, why are you training to become a _Huntsman_?" Weiss asked, Jack stopping mid-whittle. "If you've done this sort of thing before, and there's big money to be made off of it, wouldn't it be natural to pursue a more-profitable line of work?"

"I joined Beacon because fighting's all I'm really good for anymore," he sighed tiredly, Yang frowning when she recognized the self-loathing look in his eyes. "If I'm not kicking butt, taking names, and giving those names to _other _people whose butts I've kicked, I won't be happy. Even if everyone hates me for it, fighting's in my blood. Fighting's what I'm good at and good _for_. That isn't something that's ever going to change."

"That's so sad…" Ruby sniffled, tears in her eyes. Weiss' heart went out to the girl, and in a surprising show of kindness, she pulled the younger girl into a hug, patting her on the back.

"Sorry, Rubes. I guess I got a little too _real _for you just then, didn't I? My bad."

"No, it's fine," Ruby said shaking her head. "Everyone has things they're good at. And besides, if you never wanted to become a Huntsman-in-Training, you and I would never have met. And then I wouldn't have a cool big bro like you," she said beaming.

"Well, you're right about that one," Jack said returning to his whittling.

"So… What was your mom like?" Ruby asked, now that the topic of his primary birth-giver had come up.

"Amala… She was the best, no other way around it," Jack said with a smile. "She taught me how to hunt, how to gather, but also how to respect nature so it'd continue giving its bounty. She taught me how to raise my own food, and take care of a family if I ever lived long enough to bring one up."

"She sounds a lot like _our _mom; baker of cookies and slayer of monsters," Yang said with a smile.

"Yeah, my mom did that too," Jack said scratching his cheek. "Of course, our household was filled with love, and compassion, so not that many Grimm ever came by. We were more likely to run into a Saber Rabbit or a Red-Hair Boar than a Beowolf or an Ursai."

"Saber Rabbit?" Blake asked with a tilt of the head.

"Imagine a giant rabbit the size of an Ursa with the giant fangs of a saber-toothed cat, and you've got the general idea," Jack explained off as he returned to his whittling.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Yang said skeptically with a huff. She just had a really hard time believing that a _rabbit _could grow to be the size of an Ursa. And how strong could something with a **Capture Level 100 **_be _anyway?

"Eh, I could eat," Jack said with a shrug, the others gawking at his admission of hunting something down the size of an Ursa. "Though maybe I'll save hunting one down for after finals. We can even have a _barbecue_, right up here," he said looking around the spacious roof. "We find a grill large enough, and I can whip up some nice kebabs, maybe some Saber Rabbit steaks."

"It _is _pretty roomy up here," Yang admitted. "We get some chairs, a radio up here, and we could make it our own little hangout."

"That'd cost _money _though," Blake interjected. "Let's see about getting some mission pay under our belt before we start planning anything."

"Cant' we just ask _Jack _for money," Ruby asked, remembering the big-money he'd earned off of betting on himself at the beginning of the year, only to get flicked on the nose by her older sister.

"He isn't a walking _piggy bank_!" the blond huffed. "Besides, it's not like we have to make the roof _our spot _right away. We've got four more years at Beacon. We can afford to wait a little."

"Okay…" Ruby sighed. "Oh! I've been meaning to ask. What was your _dad _like?" Ruby asked, the heiress sitting to her side flinching at the topic that'd come up.

" . . . I don't like to talk about him," Jack said after a couple seconds. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring him up again. _Ever,_" he said narrowing his now-amber eyes.

"Oh… My bad," Ruby said awkwardly, now knowing he had issues surrounding _both _parents. "Back onto _other _topics, you said a Saber Rabbit was as big as an Ursa. What _else _have you captured? Those Hide &amp; Cherreeks were _soooooo _tasty," she said drooling a little. Normally she went for chocolate, or strawberries, but _man _those glistening cherries were good!

"_Lots _of stuff. I never _discovered _anything, but I don't hunt down Ingredients for that kind of achievement. I eat what I kill, and if I'm not going to eat it, I don't kill it. Unless it pisses me off or it won't leave me alone. _Then _I'll kill it. But for the most part I try to chase it off. Can't afford to mess with the food chain too much," Jack waved off.

"Hey Jack. Total 'noob question'," Weiss said making air-quotes. "But why are you _saving_ those wood shavings?" she asked pointing to the pile of wood shavings in the bag in front of him. Most would just leave them where they lay, since they _were _biodegradables.

"Mix them into a fire, and we have our own animal repellent. It won't keep _Grimm_ at bay forever, but it keeps them back and will give us a little breathing room," Jack answered as he finally emptied out the contents of his bag, a box full of shaven Cigar Tree Branches at his feet, and bag filled with animal-repelling shavings to the right. "Well, I've finished up with _my _harvest. Next chance I get, I'll put most of these out on the open market, make myself a little money," he said closing up the shoe box filled with what looked like cigars. "Anyway, finals are only a couple days away, so let's knuckle down!"

"Yeah!" Ruby whooped.

"And then we'll roast some rabbit!" Yang whooped, a certain bunny-eared brunette who was making her way to the roof taking those words the wrong way and running off due to lack of context.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**DELETED SCENE:**

"**Wait!"**

"**What is it?" Jack asked at Ruby's sudden outburst.**

"**Back in Glynda's class when you snapped your fingers and you lit that tree branch. How'd you do that?"**

"**That? I just rubbed a little iron powder on my fingertips in advance. Then, using the friction of a snap to scrape two surfaces of iron against one another, I can light a fire," Jack explained as he snapped his fingers, a few sparks leaping off his fingers.**

"**Oh…" Ruby slumped, hoping it was something more… **_**magical **_**in nature.**

"**Were you hoping for something more **_**magical **_**in nature?" the Faunus asked.**

"**Was it that obvious?"**

"**Only a little," Jack said holding his fingers apart. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll see something magical **_**someday**_**," he said patting the girl's head, the red-head beaming under the affectionate gesture.**

"_**You should be **_**careful, **_**Yang. A little more and Jack might replace you as Ruby's favorite sibling," **_**Weiss playfully barbed.**

"_**Pshaw. No I don't. Sure, Jack's **_**kinda **_**cool, and stuff, but blood doesn't get washed away by water that easily," **_**the blond defended.**

"_**Still, Ruby **_**might **_**develop a brother-complex. You should probably be careful about that," **_**Blake chimed in, Yang flinching as the black-haired girl's words sunk in. **_**"A young and impressionable girl… so eager and willing-to-please… Some guys **_**dig **_**that kinda thing."**_

"_**Oh, I totally see what you mean," **_**the heiress said deciding to play along. **_**"Why get boobs-today when you can invest in boobs-tomorrow."**_

_*FSSSSSSSS*_

"_**Hey Weiss… I think we broke her," **_**Blake said as the blond slumped to her knees, steam rising off the top of her head as she muttered incoherently to herself.**

"_**She'll be **_**fine**_**," **_**Weiss waved off. **_**"Apparently Ruby **_**already **_**has a boy she's interested in, she's just so socially **_**brain dead **_**she has no idea how to **_**interpret **_**those kinds of feelings."**_

"_**I'd hope so. If the two of them start having sex, they'll never leave the room, and they're only a couple beds **_**away **_**from one another," **_**Blake joked.**

"_**Ugh, I **_**so **_**didn't need that image in my head," **_**the heiress groaned, her face reddening at the thought of Team RWBBY's leader and male member (pun not intended) having hot steamy sex right above her one night.**

"_**Hey Jack. What're those guys talking about?" **_**Ruby asked over her shoulder from the doorway.**

"_**I'll tell you when you're older," **_**Jack said turning her back to the stairs.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Originally this chapter was **_**just **_**going to be about Jack skipping out on Port's class, and then an exposition about the IGO's role in Remnant during lunch. But then I thought, that'd be too boring, so I decided to add the fight with Cardin that Jack wins using a Cigar Tree branch. Its one-part inspired by Asuma Sarutobi's "Katon: Haisekishō/Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning" (Naruto), and another based on how Toriko (titular character of a manga by the same name) used a Cigar Tree branch to repel Zombie Taipans in the fifth chapter.**

**Just a bit of Filler before Jaunedice is concluded in the next chapter.**

**Then comes the FUN part. MWA HA HA HA!**


	25. Fight, and Fight, and Fight Some More!

**Hoooooly **_**shit**_**. This chapter turned out **_**way **_**longer than I thought it was going to be. Way more descriptive fight scenes than I was aiming for, but I like how things turned out, so if you enjoy gratuitous amounts of violence, this is the chapter for you.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The following day, the first three classes were more hectic than usual. All the teachers put theirs', and the students', noses to the grindstone as they rapid-fired facts and trivia into their students' heads to prepare them for the finals they would have the following day. Assuming people slacked off on their studies, then any last-minute studying would enable them to _barely _scrape by with a passing 70%. Though most of the teachers stressed that poor grades in the first semester would negatively impact their ability to carry out missions for both grade and profit later on.

And then came Glynda's class, where the Final, more about fighting than knowledge, was being carried out prior to the other three finals the following day. Something about how if they got the most-physical part of their finals out of the way quickly, they'd be able to put more focus into their studies tomorrow, and not have to worry about mental fatigue from three overarching tests negatively impacting their Live Combat class' grade.

Of course, a big difference was that the Final was taking place behind the school in one of the larger training grounds. It was a large, flat grassy plain with tree lines off to the side, most-frequently used for recreational purposes like soccer or football when the dedicated fields were already occupied. A number of flatbed trucks with canopies were also wheeled off to the side, and that was when Glynda began explaining how their Final for this course would work.

"Alright students, this training field has been divided into quarters to triage the testing of four students at once. While each of you will be starting out in the middle, do not hesitate to move beyond your designated lot of the field if deemed necessary, as in the real world, your peers will have to accommodate others fighting around them," Glynda explained as she gestured out to the field, which had orange lines spray painted across it, divvying up the football field-sized space into quarters.

The woman tapping a few buttons on her Scroll, the darkness of the canopies on the flatbeds began to light up, and figures began stepping out. It only took a passing glance to recognize that the machines taking to the field were a batch of the school's Training Androids, Atlesian Knight-130s, a line of combat android that was quickly growing obsolete with whisperings of Atlas rolling out a new model sometime this year. The repurposed models were painted all-white, and the reds of their optics were replaced with blue, giving them a friendlier feel. On their left arms they had metallic kite shields, and running the length of their shields were standard long swords in built-in sheaths.

"For the first part of your final, you will each be facing a single Training Android. Their parameters will be set to slightly-above your own current skill level. While I would not advise you to hold back against them, retrofitting them for training purposes represents a significant investment on our parts, so restraint _is _appreciated. That being said, if your fighting style is counter-intuitive to a taking-prisoners format for combat, don't hesitate to eke out the amount of force you deem necessary. There _is _money in the budget to repair Training Androids, so don't hesitate in this first test, which will represent a fair amount of your final grade," the woman lectured. "The first Team up will be…"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The first Team to take the first part of their Final for this class was Team Cardinal. Being along the bottom-tier of that-years' freshman class, if only because the rest of their peers were so much more exemplary in comparison, their fights were less than spectacular, nothing to really write home about, though the lot of them passed without any major complications. Apparently, getting the stuffing kicked out of them on a frequent basis by a Faunus, who happened to be the object of their scorn, was a good motivator to work out to _avoid _said stuffing-kickings.

After that, Team Juniper took to the field. Best-to-worst, were Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, and Jaune.

Pyrrha fought with sword-and-shield, and while the AK-130's movement speed exceeded her own, her _skill _exceeded its-own, and she handily won after disarming it… then dis-shielding it, and then kicking it over before placing a knee to its stomach and placing the point of her rifle to its visor, Glynda calling the match if only to save expensive hardware. Re-attaching arms was a simple thing, but re-wiring the CPU and other sensors was not, and the blond always got bitched-at by the tech department for any repairs to needlessly-violent destruction they had to repair.

Nora, as usual, went in with hammer swinging. The machine tried to block with its shield, and while it admirably held its ground, the moment it changed from a defensive to an offensive stance, it received a grenade-assisted hammer blow to the chest. The AK-130 did not come back down for several seconds, and when it did, Glynda knew it would require a full overhaul.

Ren was more surgical in nature, using his Stormflower to pepper its shield with bullets as he strafed around in circles, slowly closing the gap between them. When it slashed at him with its sword, the teen redirected the attack with the blades on his automatic pistols before leaping over it and kicking it upside the head. The machine staggered as it re-oriented its gyroscope, but by the time it did, Ren had gotten inside its guard and handily decapitated it with a cross-slash.

**After that, Jaune mustered his courage, and through unimaginable odds, managed to win the day by handily, looking totally badass as he-**

"**Ah ha! Hahaha! WAH HAHAHA! Man, I can't say that with a straight face!"**

**Dammit Deadpool! Here too?**

"**Hey, **_**you're **_**the one dragging your feet on ****Young Justice: The Hunter****, and this **_**totally **_**isn't shameless self-advertisement or anything. When're you gonna write in me hunting down the MC like some kinda animal?"**

**Eventually! For the time being, stop messing with the narrative! Ahem, as I was narrating…**

Jaune's fight was… _less-than-_less-than spectacular. He rushed headlong at the machine, screaming what they _assumed _he assumed to be a manly battle-cry, and brought his sword down only to meet a shield. Jaune fervently attacked, trying to strafe it, but none of his attacks could bypass the kite shield, the Training Android almost _lazily _swatting aside sword strikes with its own sword. Jaune exhausted himself pretty quickly, and got a shield bash in the face that sent him tumbling across the ground. Glynda looked like she was contemplating whether or not to lower the difficulty setting even _further_, but instead opted to leave things as they were, letting the Training Android attack as it was. When the blond's Aura reached the 50% benchmark, the machine stopped and stepped back. Jaune thought this an opportunity to attack, but a slight telekinetic nudge from her riding crop sent Jaune tumbling to the ground, sword and shield flying out of his hand.

"Mr. Arc," Glynda said walking up to him. "If you wish to try again, I can lower the difficulty setting even further. However, know that unless you improve your… _abilities_," she said trying to find the proper word for… _whatever _it was the blond had been doing. "You will only drag your team down in the Vytal Festival. Worse over, someone could get killed someday. Also, you will not receive full points for your final in this class."

Jaune of course wilted under the woman's gaze and words, all of Cardinal, and Jack, were laughing at his poor showing. Pyrrha, Ren, Blake, and Yang were all neutral, while Ruby and Nora encouraged him from the sidelines. Weiss on the other hand was totally nonplussed by the results of the one-sided battle. Deciding to get back up and try again, Glynda lowered the Combat Androids' setting to the _lowest _difficulty level, but even then, Jaune barely passed the first part of the test, Cardin in particular laughing at his sweat-drenched expression of fatigue.

After that came Team Ruby, Jack's surname taking up the middle initial of **RWBBY** in the fully-abbreviated team name, that did not require any changing. Ruby of course happily explained the change to her instructor, but made the mistake of saying that Jack was like the filling for a Ruby &amp; Weiss and Blake &amp; Yang sandwich, completely missing the connotations those words had. Yang laughed it off, Blake only coughed nervously, while Weiss sputtered in outright denial.

Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, the fighting began.

Ruby, with a manic glee rivaling Nora's, punched a golf ball-sized hole through her respective Training Android, shield and all, and the shortest fight of the first round by far.

Weiss was more methodical, summoning a Glyph beneath the feet of her opponent and sending it soaring into the air before binding it in place with mini-Glyphs, then running along a line of Glyphs that boosted her speed. An empowered rapier strike to its neck ended the fight as swiftly as it began.

Blake began the fight by raising her cleaver, swinging low and sending a crescent of Aura-powered pressurized air at her opponent. The machine raised its shield and blocked, losing a few inches but still standing. Blake then closed the gap between them, putting it on the defensive with her bullets, only to be slashed in retaliation. However, the Blake that was slashed disappeared like a mirage, and the machine raised its shield above its head when the proximity sensors caught her presence up above it. Blake's fervent slashes with both weapons put the machine on the defensive. Leaping back, the Faunus shot her kama-gun forward before drawing it back, the blade sinking into the back of the Training Android's head and dropping it to its knees.

Yang opened up with a salvo of shotgun blasts, her opponent raising its shield and blocking, backpedaling a step for every two that Yang took. Once she was on top of him, she proceeded to beat the living daylights out of it, shield beginning to dent and buckle under the constant assault. The machine retaliated with a slash, and while Yang thought she dodged, a severed hair made her go red-eyed, and she proceeded to beat the robot with her fists and shotgun blasts until it was left as an unrecognizable heap on the ground. However, she only lost the _tip _of a single hair, so her "Rage Mode" only lasted a few seconds.

Not that she needed any more than five mind you.

Then came Jack's fight, which was done separately from the initial Team RWBY. The AK-130 set to fight him was slightly bulkier than the others with more armor plating, and a little bit taller. Likely for second-years to use. The sword and shield looked heavier, and given Jack's reputation, it showed that the thing didn't die almost immediately as it was fired at by buckshot and slugs. The Faunus then ran at his target, who made a wide swing which the Faunus pounced over. His arms grabbing it below the armpits, coiling his core, he threw the machine head over heels when his own feet touched the ground. The machine was disoriented, and Jack was able to close the gap once again. Slipping behind it, the Faunus grabbed the machine by its midsection before turning it over, leaping high into the air and spinning before placing his feet under its arms and its legs under his armpits, the spinning piledriver dropping the robot right onto its head and breaking it in half at the waist, its lights dimming at the moment of impact.

"Jack… What the hell was that?" Blake found herself asking as Jack stepped away from the mangled heap of robot he'd left half-buried in the middle of the field.

"That, my lazy and antisocial teammate, was the Spinning Tornado Piledriver. I learned it after getting caught in a cyclone while piledriving a bear," Jack answered.

" . . . That is the most _awesome _thing I've _ever _heard!" Nora whooped.

"I call bullshit," Weiss deadpanned. "There's no _way _that really happened."

"I also back-hold-wrestle _bull sharks_, but I don't see any of you calling bullshit on _that_," the Faunus said with a half-lidded gaze, the thinking ability of most there utterly destroyed as they tried to imagine how one would even go about _doing _something like that.

" . . . That is the _second _most awesome thing I've ever heard!" the perky orange-haired girl whooped.

The majority of Team DIRJ was still a few days away from a full recovery. As such, they would have to make up _this _final at a later day. Though even then, it'd still be a mad scramble to get caught up after their… incapacitation after week one.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After a brief recess, even more AK-130s were rolled out onto the fields. These had a mix of arm-blades and SMGs mounted in place of their hands. Glynda went on to explain that in _this _scenario, they would simulate the fighting of multiple opponents, and while they would not be penalized for their decrease in Aura to the red zone, how well they fought in-proportion to the damage they received _would_ be graded; essentially how much Aura they "exchanged" for each Kill, if-any. The numbers of course would not be consistent for all students, as some of their styles warranted greater numbers for proper testing than others, in addition to their respective fighting ability, while others took a "fight smarter not harder" approach.

Like before, the field remained triaged into quarters, and the members of each Team were arranged in the center where the four corners met, back-to-back-to-back-to-back with their respective Training Androids arranged across from them in a phalanx.

Strangely enough, Team Cardinal was _slightly _above unremarkable. Against his 15 opponents, Cardin's shockwave-inducing mace mowed through them really quickly, while his heavy plate armor lessened the strain on his Aura when it came to tanking shots. Russel used several Dust variants in his twin daggers, ranging from Red, Cyan, White, and even Yellow, using acrobatics and fast footwork to stay ahead of the 12 he'd been assigned to fight. While the bullets from Dove's Hallstatt sword didn't have a lot of stopping power, he proved to be plenty deft with his weapon of choice, even capable of using the recoil to redirect his sword slashes mid-swing, moving faster than his 14 opponents could react to. Sky used the length of his halberd to keep his 13 opponents at bay, and those he couldn't close the gap on, he used its rifle-like capabilities to fight, even though they didn't have _nearly _the same stopping power as the Crescent Rose.

After that came Team Juniper.

The Invincible (-Except-Against-Jack-Braxton-but-That's-too-Hard-to-Say-in-Conversation) Girl, Pyrrha Nikos, made an excellent showing against her staggering 25 opponents. As an opening move she threw out her shield and ricocheted it between the heads of nearly _half_ her opposition, and were they Human, their teeth would've been rattling in their skulls before getting their brains blown out by her rifle. She then switched between sword and lance styles, the prior to move in, the latter to keep her foes at bay. She moved so swiftly and gracefully, it was almost as though the enemy's blows were moving _around _her, her acrobatic kicks and spins making full use of every muscle in her body, her ponytail and waist-cape fluttering behind her like in the wind.

The fact that Nora's 18 Training Androids were all bunched together in a phalanx from the get-go did _not _bode well for them, as it only took a few of her grenades to scatter their ranks, and as they picked themselves back up, hammer blows to the head with her own natural strength, regardless of her deceptively small frame, was enough to put any of them out of decommission after a single blow. Suffice it to say, _none _of Nora's sparring partners were going to be getting back up any time soon. Or _ever_, with how she went leg-breaking-nutso a couple minutes in.

Against his own 16, Ren was much more surgical about it, using speed and acrobatics to avoid the initial volley of gunfire, before moving in and severing limbs with the blades on his automatic pistols, before filling them with point-blank fire, his veritable ninja skills keeping him out of harms way. Like watching water flow around rocks in a river, his blows were deceptively powerful, utterly destroying his opponents, though a couple times he was interrupted during the spool-up for his more hard-hitting techniques. His teammates would later learn that he abstained from using his Flame Sword Guns for this test because using them put an enormous strain on his body, and the "ammo blocks" he used in each one were expensive unto themselves.

Jaune's fight… even against 10 Training Androids on _the _lowest difficulty setting if their sluggish-in-comparison movements were any sort of indicator, did not go as swimmingly as… _any _of his peers. He made a valiant effort of storming the initial volley of gunfire, shield soaking up the hits for him, but the moment he raised his sword to strike one down, screaming at the top of his lungs, a Training Android came at him from the side and slashed into his exposed flank, biting into his Aura. Things went steadily downhill from there as he proved completely incapable of fighting ten marginally-skilled opponents at once. His only saving grace was his rather _large _pool of Aura which kept him in the fight for a good while, but without defense to back him up, a Tank, that larger-than-average Auric reserve did not make. In fact all it did was drag out the inevitable until Glynda decided she'd seen enough and ordered the Androids to stand down.

"Oh gawd…" Jaune panted as he fell to his knees, felling like he was about to hack up a long with less than a quarter of his Aura remaining as the exercise finally came to an end… a good twenty minutes after the rest of his team. Those that stopped mid-strike returned to a standing and ready position, superficial damage on their armor plating, three robots taken down for the blond's troubles from the lucky hits he was able to score to vital areas.

The cheers that were sent his way largely lacked any form of enthusiasm. Like trying to start a car engine with a dead battery and no distributor cap, the whole of Teams Ruby and Juniper just couldn't find it in themselves to be _sincere _in their applause. Team Cardinal at the least was _honest_ as they openly mocked and jeered at him for yet _another _hilarious butt-kicking-receiving, but what hurt the blond the most wasn't their laughs, but Weiss' utter dismissal of him as she lazily filed her nails, having stopped watching after nine minutes and eighteen seconds. Sure, Ruby and Nora tried to congratulate him, saying he did "a really good job", while Blake and Ren were good sports about it and offered him _some _applause, but their smiles didn't reach their eyes, not in the slightest. Off to the side, Jack held up four fingers while cryptically mouthing- "At a minimum."

It was one thing to survive in a forest full of Grimm with sheer dumb luck and a world-renowned young-champion holding his hand. It was quite another to fight under a dozen combat-ready Androids with _zero_ backup.

That Cardin had been running him ragged the past week didn't help matters in the slightest, but it wasn't like he could complain. Well, not like he _could _complain anyway.

Once the latest batch of dead robots was cleared from the field, which in a show of irony was done by yet more Training Androids, it was finally Team RWBBY's turn to take to the stage, though like before, Jack would have to take his separately because the field couldn't be effectively triaged into fifths.

Ruby, against her 18 opponents, started strong by biting the blade of her scythe into the ground, cocking the bolt-action of her sniper rifle and took out three opponents within seconds, before disappearing in a blur of rose petals to avoid the retaliatory fire. The training she'd been doing with Jack had borne fruit, as through her new ability to manipulate the "Vectors" she projected from her body, was able to make sharp turns and bends with her Semblance she hadn't been able to _do _before, zig-zagging faster than the eye could follow. Coming to a stop, another twist of her "Vectors" enabled her to get the same kind of speed going with her scythe as she would firing it for the _recoil_, though since she was still new to it, she over-extended herself, and would've gotten hit by a blade-slash if she hadn't tucked into a ball and rolled away. By merit of her speed and the size of her weapon alone, it only took a single slash to each opponent before everything in her section of the field had been split in half, torsos and severed robot arms scattered throughout the field.

Weiss' fighting style, less hard-hitting and more surgical in nature than her peers', warranted a headcount of 15 Training Androids. Stabbing her rapier into the ground, a pillar of ice rose in front of her, blocking the opening volley quite handily. Her blade alight with Red Dust, she leaped into the air before doling a series of horizontal slashes that melted lines of ice through as she fell. Blade then becoming alight with White Dust, the now-concussive force of her weapon's swings sent the slabs of ice sailing through the air, some of her opponents crushed while others were able to combat roll out of the way. Racing along a line of Glyphs, her blade became alight with Gold Dust, and in a deft swing, a thin whip of lightning crashed through all her remaining opposition in a wide arc, their lights sparking and paralyzing them as she leapt up and "touched" each of them through the necks, dropping them where they stood.

Blake, set up against 17 Training Androids, rushed forward before sending the sickle part of her Gambol Shroud screaming through the air, the whirling blade taking one of their heads off before they managed to return fire. Blake picked up the pace, strafing her opponents and occasionally boosting her speed with a Shadow. Suddenly veering right and closing the gap, she decapitated another one with her cleaver before snapping her sickle out and sending it flying, yanking it off its feet and spinning it around before throwing it into a row of Training Androids, the black-haired beauty running straight at her enemies and leaping above their heads, her cleaver extended as she split their heads in half down the middle like a black-and-purple buzzsaw. Using her pistol to quickly pick off the SMG-wielding units with headshots amidst acrobatics, she then attached her cleaver to her pistol, and in a new one she'd been working out since fighting Jack, whipped out her cleaver in wide arcs with her ribbon like a kusari-fundo, the weight of her heavy-hitting weapon, while unwieldy at first, cleaving through enemies like butter once she got some momentum going at-range.

Yang's first move against her 26 opponents was to blast her shot-gauntlets at the ground, launching her into the air, the sun's rays causing her hair to glow an even brighter shade of gold before she descended from on high, the force of her first impact causing the ground to ripple sending Training Androids stumbling left and right. Her ammo coated in Yellow Dust, she sprayed the enemies nearest her with a flurry of buckshot rounds, the granules dug into their armor glowing bright yellow before suddenly exploding, scattering armor, servos, and circuitry in all directions. Nearly half her opposition snuffed out by the rapid-fire barrage of gunshots, the busty girl ejected her Ember Celica's shells before loading in new belts with a flourish, the carousel magazine locking over the rounds before she began firing White Dust slugs from her knuckles, each Dust round exploding with the concussive force equivalent to a speeding truck. After one of them thought it was a good idea to mess with her hair… let's just say their warranty ran out _really _quickly.

"Is it wrong that I'm kinda turned on right now?" Nora asked putting a finger to her chin as she watched Yang rip out an Android's leg out of the socket before beating it to death over the head with it.

"I'm… unsure _what _to say?" Pyrrha said as she watched the blond repeatedly punch another Android where its genitals would be. She then grabbed its shoulders before kneeing it in the face, its head sent flying clean off.

"Nora, if it makes you feel any less-weird about your arousal, I have a _raaaging _boner right now," Jack said without an ounce of shame as Yang broke another one in half over her knee.

"You're certainly… _honest_ about what turns you on," Ren said stepping away from the Faunus.

"Ooh! Ooh! Does that mean I have a _lady_-boner?" Nora asked, also without an ounce of shame.

"Sure, why not," the Faunus said with a shrug while others around them blushed.

"Sweet! We can be _boner_-buddies together!" the orange-haired girl said with a grin as she threw an arm over his shoulders.

"If you were a dude, I'd have to say _'No homo'_," the Faunus said as he found himself cheek-to-cheek with the potentially-psychotic hammer-wielding girl.

"-and _that!_" Yang growled red-eyed as she punched out the last robot's lights, her arm impaled through the Android's face and sticking out the back of its head.

"Well… That was a thing," Blake said as she watched Yang rip her arm free, a CPU held in her hand before she dropped it like a mic.

"So, did you talk about anything interesting while we fought?" Weiss asked.

"No!" Pyrrha and Ren both shouted red-faced, while Nora and Jack looked thick as thieves.

"Ooh! Looks like the next fight's coming up!" Ruby whooped as another batch of Androids hopped out the back of a truck.

"Jack…" Glynda said getting the Faunus' attention. "I hope you'll find the current number of opposition to be… _adequate_," she stated as a grand total of _thirty _Training Androids marched into the field. That was five more than Pyrrha's, and unlike her, his weapon barely transformed. Of course, given his whole _body _was a weapon… "While I'm sure you think you could handle more, thirty is the upper-limit for a single student."

"Oh don't worry about a thing Professor," Jack said with a smile, the animosity he once held for her before seemingly forgotten. "Thirty will be _plenty _enough for me to spread my wings," he said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Is that why you're abstaining from using your weapon this time around?" the blond-haired professor asked, noticing Nora cradling "The Ripper" in her arms like it were a child.

"Glynda, sometimes you just gotta go for _style_ points. Hoo-ah."

_"There there, Rippy. Mommy's here. Killing-time soon~" _Nora cooed as she stroked the axe in her arms.

Like _that _wasn't disturbing in the slightest.

"I… see…" the professor returned in the face of the Faunus'… _enthusiasm _at unarmed combat. She also worried about _Nora's _enthusiasm, but that wasn't important right now. Anyway, Jack didn't lack for confidence or skill at least. Not like that _one _boy whose presence she questioned more than ever after having to use the lowest settings _ever _since they started using Training Androids with the freshman class. It really _was _the only way to create completely unbiased opposition as a testbed for student's skills.

Once Jack had taken to the field, his arms hung loosely at his sides, fingers curling and uncurling as a bird suddenly screeched from up above. A tone like flute music sounded out of nowhere, a _tumbleweed _of all things rolled across the ground between them. It seemed that based on their elevated difficulty setting, Jack's batch of Training Androids were waiting for _him _to make the first move.

"_True pain isn't something that runs through the body. It is something that pierces the heart, and constricts it without limit," _Jack muttered to himself like a mantra, only Yang able to connect words to the movements of his lips. **"Thirty-Percent Full-Cowl!" **he suddenly roared, his skin gaining a reddish tint as a crimson flame-like aura exploded from his body, dirt and grass scattering in all directions as his muscles bulged and his power spiked.

**Cue One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 OST – Battle at the Speed of Sound**

The AK-130s recognizing the sudden spike in their target's Aura, those with the appropriate firepower leveled their SMGs at him and fired, a veritable wall of bullets sailing towards him. Jack bent his knees, the heels of his feet rising from the ground before he suddenly shot forward, a loud _***BOOM* **_echoing through the air as the sudden burst of speed scattered the bullets away from him. Drawing his right arm back, he lunged forward at the center of the opposing formation with a powerful right straight, a loud _***CRASH* **_ringing through the air as the first Android's head was punched clean off its shoulders, crumpled like a tin can. He then reached out and grabbed the Androids closest to him and slammed their heads together, a geyser of hardware and hydraulic fluid spewing into the air from the impact.

Another Android with SMGs took aim at him from behind, but the Faunus back-flipped over the shots, landing behind his attacker. Before it could turn to face him, Jack grabbed its wrists from behind before planting a sandaled foot on its back, ripping the arms free before rounding on the two blade-wielding Androids behind them and bashing one apiece, the bludgeons utterly destroyed, while the Androids' heads flew clean off. Cartwheeling to the side as gunshots flew through the air where he once stood, the Faunus zig-zagged toward his next target, weaving around gunshots before front-flipping through the air in a tight ball, uncoiling at the last moment for a devastating double-kick that caused the Android's insides to spew out its back. Kicking off of what was left of the gun-wielding Android, arms across his chest, the Faunus' claws popped before he slashed out, two quartets of air blades flung from his claws as they wrent the air in front of themselves, splitting four unfortunate robots into fifths.

Their remains tumbling to the ground, three blade-wielding Androids ran at him from all angles, ready to uncross their blades at him. A dark glint shining off his fangs as he smirked, Jack stood his ground with his arms extended, whirling dizzying at the last moment with a spinning clothesline double-lariat, his fists and forearms causing metal plating to bend and buckle under the force of the blows, the speed of the movement creating a momentary vacuum that juggled his opponents before scattering them in mangled heaps that, were they human, they'd have been dead before they hit the ground.

Bullets screaming toward him, the Faunus launched himself off the ground before kicking off the air, spinning in the air before slamming into a pair of gun-wielding Androids that happened to be standing too close together with a spread-eagle body splash. Bouncing off the ground from the recoil, a blade-wielding Android rushed at him, Jack smacking the blades aside before leaping up onto its shoulders and wrenching its head from its shoulders, tossing it into the air before bicycle-kicking it over his head and into the faceplate of another blade-wielding Android that tried coming up from behind him.

Shifting his feet on the ground, he was off in a shot via Shundo, and in a move taken right from Ruby's own playbook, he began spinning in a corkscrew to the point he was nothing but a blur of color. The difference however was that Jack had his arms crossed ahead of himself, the sun's light glinting off of his black claws as he drilled through three gun-wielding and two blade-wielding Androids, the lot of them split in half and their bifurcated pieces scattered by the gale-force winds. A veritable deluge of parts and hydraulic fluid followed

The next wave consisted of two blade-wielding Androids zig-zagging around one another as they made their way towards him, the last four SMG-wielding machines strafing them and firing at him. Jack ran toward the blade-wielding machines, ducking and weaving around sidelong shots with the grace of a feline dodging automatic gunfire, wrapping his claws hands around the backs of their necks and using them as meatshields the moment he got close. Weathering the storm of rounds that he failed to block, once the torrent of gunfire ended, he delivered powerful slash attacks that bifurcated his mechanical adversaries, turning the two into quarters before chucking each piece at the remaining Androids at such force they looked like Siamese twins gone horribly wrong.

That only left one final blade-wielding Android that rushed him from behind in a full clip, and in a move that surprised everyone, the Faunus whirled on his opponent and _bit _the opposing blade. As the Android recoiled in what could only be the mechanical equivalent to shock, pieces of its arm blade clattering to the ground, Jack stepped into its guard and kicked it in the knee, breaking its leg backwards before karate-chopping it over the head with such force, its head was crammed into its own torso.

And all of this happened in less than two minutes.

**OST END**

The last Android falling to its knees, Jack's fiery aura dissipated and he slouched over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. His muscles burned and his bones ached, but the smile on his face was unmistakable; it'd been _way _too long since he'd violently dismembered something, even if it _was _only a bunch of training Androids. Off to the side, everyone was slowly picking up their jaws from the ground as they stared at the mangled and maimed remains of over two-dozen training Androids, the ground stained with blood-like hydraulic fluid. The place looked like a movie set from one of those post-apocalyptic flicks where humans would fight armies of robots.

"Is anyone else turned on right now, or is it just me?" Yang found herself asking out loud as she tugged at her collar, the heiress off to her right retching slightly at the blond's flushed expression as she fanned herself. Ruby had stars in her eyes, particularly when he used her "Ruby Rocket" with his own Jack-brand twist, while Blake coughed awkwardly.

"I liked it when he broke that one's leg," Nora said with a chipper smile.

"Nora, behave," Ren told his longtime friend. Off to the side, Pyrrha closed Jaune's gaping mouth if only so bugs wouldn't get in. As the cleaning crews moved in to sweep up the carnage, the red-heads thoughts wandered.

'_Jack stated at the fight's start that he was using "thirty percent". If that was roughly a third of his full power, and he came out with barely a scratch on him, that just begs the question…' _Pyrrha thought to herself as Jack walked up the hill to rejoin the others. _'How strong is he at full-tilt, when he isn't holding anything back?' _she thought as Ruby ran up to him and handed him a towel, excitedly pestering him with questions while Yang threw an arm over his shoulders and congratulated him on the major skidplate-kicking he'd just dished out. _'Wait a minute…' _the red-head thought as she drank in the Faunus' appearance. _'Jack never removed his weights!' _she realized after a few seconds, eyes widening at the revelation. _'Weighed down with nearly two-hundred pounds of extra weight and he can still move like that… Just what kind of training did he put himself through?' _she thought as she remembered how _effortlessly _he moved through the air and across the ground, and wondered just how much damage he could squeeze out of that "thirty percent" _without _his weights.

While she hated being objectified, both in aesthetic and athletic capacities, she couldn't help but admire (read: ogle) his muscular build. The way they rippled as he moved, the way they coiled and flexed as he put them to work, the sheer _power _that radiated off him as he fought. She marveled at the countless hours he must've spent every day in his youth to get that strong, and wondered if he'd share some of his tips with her.

And then… there was Jaune.

Her _feelings _for him hadn't changed, even after that ground-breaking revelation the week prior. They were just… being _tested _right now. Sure, he was kind and honest and sincere in his efforts, but like Jack had said, it didn't change the fact that he'd lied his way into Beacon, and taken away someone else's future for the sake of his own hubris. And when you compare his musculature to Jack's, there _was _no comparison. Sure, he was tall and he had muscle on him, but he possessed neither the strength nor flexibility Jack seemed to possess in spades. Not to mention the confidence, which Team Cardinal seemed to have sucked out of the blond in recent days.

Thinking back to Jack, it was just so… _difficult _at times to approach him, so all she really knew about him was second-hand from watching Team Ruby's interactions with the older teen. She guessed that his _motivation _for getting strong was firmly built upon the desire to avenge his mother and sister who, as he so vocally described, had been violently murdered by racist humans simply "because". His thoughts on the matter bordered on homicidal, and the red-head shuddered to imagine the mental modality of any hypothetical offspring between himself and _Nora _(who was still cradling and stroking "Rippy" like a child), but his family was _murdered_, right in front of him! She could give him a little leeway on that, because if _her _mother, or even a _sibling _had been murdered in cold blood, there was no _knowing _how far she'd be pushed.

And then there was the time after the fact. He said he spent "a year" in Skyrim, one of the most inhospitable continents on all of Remnant. Simply _living _there was a challenge unto itself, so at the minimum, the monochrome-haired Faunus could probably handle temperature extremes in a way none of them could even _touch_. And then there was what she learned from Weiss during their chats in the library as they studied for finals. In addition to being a Bishoku-ya, which was made painfully obvious by the smell of cherries coming out of Ruby's room that morning before breakfast, there was also the fact that he was a Sweeper who if stories were to be taken even with a grain of salt, went after B-Rank criminals with the intent to capture them alive, something arguably more difficult than the work of a Bounty Hunter, which was essentially just a glorified term for hitman for criminals that jumped on their bail. He also didn't go to a _formal _combat academy, so the possibility existed that his fighting experience _alone _simply eclipsed those of formally-schooled students to the point that a formal education wasn't even a _factor_. Those that lived in the Frontier _did _tend to be stronger than those "coddled" within the safety of their own Kingdoms as Ozpin had so plainly put it during his visit to her hospital room.

Redirecting her thoughts to her blond teammate, who was being made to play water boy to Cardin and his flunkies, despite being _only _a few feet away from the water cooler. Most would think that whatever Cardin had on him, which she suspected her fellow red-head had overheard as well, and what the blond was being made to do, would be "punishment enough". However, Pyrrha worked _really _hard to get into Beacon, so she could understand some of Jack's ire when thinking that someone grossly unqualified simply _waltzed _their way in right from under everyone's noses without putting in an equivalent amount of effort and hard work. She wasn't sure _how much _would be "enough", or what could even be _done _in this situation, but even _if _she was being a hopeless romantic, star-struck by the first guy who treated her like a normal girl, unimpressed by the glitz and glamour that was becoming of a celebrity lifestyle with sporting and merchandise deals, she wanted to think that he'd be able to rise above this hurdle and become a better person for it.

'_I'll give Jaune a little more time… He at _least _deserves that much,' _Pyrrha thought as she rejoined her team.

"Well, that was fun," Jack said wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. "What's next?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After the cleaning crews took to the field to pick up what remained of the Androids sent to the slaughterhouse, Glyna ushered everyone back into the arena where they normally conducted classes. Some were exhausted, others were dead tired, while others had worked up a good sweat, and they welcomed the transition from the hot outdoors to the cool climate-controlled _indoors_.

"Alright, students. All of your final evaluations for this class have been tabulated, and your report cards will be out in a few days. However, don't think that just because most of you passed this class with flying colors, that you get to relax just yet. You still have three finals and a fieldtrip tomorrow, and the Vytal Festival is only a few months away, so I don't want to see any of you slacking off," Glynda lectured. "That being the case, there's _just _enough time leftover for one final exhibition match, which will be decided by the student in this class with the greatest disparity between win/loss ratio," she said looking down at her scroll, the students up in the stands wondering who was going to fight _now_. "…Jack Braxton, please come down," Glynda announced after a minute, the Faunus' eyebrow raising. "In the end, it came down between yourself and Pyrrha Nikos, but you had two points more than her in your GPA."

"Congratulations," Pyrrha replied looking over her shoulder with a smile.

"Hey, like Glynda said, there were only two points separating it. It could've very well been _you _called down," Jack replied with a smile as he got up from his seat, vaulting over the railing before hopping onto the stage. "So… Will the results of this exhibition match affect my final grade or what?"

"No. It's just in good fun," Glynda said shaking her head.

"Alright… Well… How does _that_ work?"

"Simply put, you will have completely uninhibited choice over any single or group of individuals you wish to face in combat," Glynda answered. "It could be a single individual, a single individual from each team, a team as a whole, or even _all _teams if you're so inclined."

"I'm compelled to ask _why_," Jack stated.

"This is mostly done so that no questions between potential rivals remain unanswered," the blond replied. "Anyone in this room is fair game. Your call. Like I said, this is an exhibition match, and the results won't affect yours or anyone else's grades in the slightest."

"Hmmm…" Jack hummed as he raised his finger to the stands, his arm panning side to side at the scattered Teams. "I'll… piiick…" he hummed as he passed RWBY, JNPR, and CRDN, the latter of which threw themselves to the ground like they were dodging a sniper's laser sight. "You," he said pointing directly in front of him, gasps of shock sounding through the classroom as the end of his finger pointed directly at Professor Goodwitch's impressive bosom.

"Excuse me?" the woman asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering if she heard him correctly.

"I'll. Pick. You," Jack repeated, jabbing his extended finger at her with each word. "You said anyone in this room is fair game, and I pick you."

"When I said you had your pick of anyone in the room, I didn't mean-"

"Huh, waddya know," Jack cut her off. "A Human that can't keep their word as soon as things don't go their way. _Typical_ Human nature," he huffed, once-forgotten animosity returning to his tone. "Then again, it's not like I should be _surprised _or anything. Human history is _filled _with making promises, and then breaking those promises five minutes later when they don't feel like keeping them anymore. Just like the Iron River Impasse at the start of the Faunus Rights Revolution."

" . . . Fine. If you want to fight me for this final exhibition match… that's fine," the woman bit out, angry at how she couldn't refute his claims. Faunus were promised equal rights after the last war, but most-everyone was dragging their feet with those equal rights formally-promised. Part of the reason that the White Fang had gotten so much traction. Especially since five years ago when they'd suddenly been emboldened to upheave the then-current leadership. The Iron River Impasse was _especially _bad because the Faunus at the time were promised a ceasefire, but when they were crossing the Iron River Bridge, they were instead attacked from both ends and systematically slaughtered down the middle.

"Great," Jack said with a smile as he began to crack his knuckles. "It's been a _while _since I've fought a strong opponent."

"Didn't you face Ms. Nikos a couple weeks ago?" the blond woman asked as she drew her riding crop from her boot.

"Pyrrha's _skilled_, that much can't be denied. But when it comes to raw _stopping power_, and I haven't really faced anyone quite on my level since coming here," Jack said as he did some stretches while the clock went down. "I guess I'd gotten spoiled on fighting _real _monsters before coming here, so that's why I asked to fight _you _instead of one of my peers. They just don't have the same kind of _bite _I've grown accustomed to during my training."

"And who exactly would you be comparing yourself to?" Glynda wondered in all honesty. Jack was a registered Atlesian citizen by birth, but because most of his travels took him through the Frontier instead of conventional channels, travel records couldn't accurately extrapolate where he lived and trained, or for how long. That was why his background check had so many holes in it, yet still met the minimum requirements.

"My mother, my father, my _god_father, my aunt and uncles, that kabuki guy my uncle knows, every person I trained under in Skyrim, anyone who ever took me under their wing out in the Frontier, Eva, my rival, Rory the Reaper..." the Faunus listed of until he ran out of fingers. "Basically everyone I've ever met whose ability outstrips mine in one if not _all _capacities," he answered singing their praises, those in the audience wondering what kind of monsters _they _were if Jack said their abilities outstripped his own. And how many could he have listed if he had more fingers? "Oh, and wild animals. Can't forget _them_. Wild animals made of succulent meat are _way _tougher than Grimm."

"I see," the woman hummed in contemplation, deciding to look into the Faunus' named associates and family at a later time. "If you're still tired from your previous fight, I'm willing to give you a brief recess. It's no problem at all."

"I just need a pick-me-up and I'll be good to go," Jack said patting down his pockets before finally finding what he was looking for. "Ah ha! Here we go!" he said holding up a familiar style of polished-silver flask, this one with a familiar skull/fist embossed on the front. When he exaggeratedly threw his head back to drink heavily from it, a spike of ire rose out of the pit of Glynda's stomach as she was immediately reminded of a certain _someone _she hated for deeply professional and-completely-non-personal reasons. However, when she caught sight of the red juice trickling down the corner of his mouth, and the fragrant aroma that hit the air, she realized instead of alcohol, it was _cherry _juice. _Hide _&amp; Cherreek if the pungent aroma was anything to go by. "Whoo! I feel that!" he whooped as he shook his head before stuffing the flask back into his pocket, his ears perked up as were his eyes. "Alright, let's get this party started!" the Faunus whooped as he got into a fighting stance, a grin on his face as he bounced on his heels, the final seconds of the clock ticking down to the start. "Show me a good time, Professor!"

"I _intend _to," she barbed back, only to flush slightly as she realized how that could sound out-of-context.

"C'mon, Jack! Kick her ass!" Yang whooped.

"Represent!" Ruby cheered. "Give her the Ruby Rocket!"

Like _that _didn't sound dirty in the slightest.

"Fight wild!" Blake said waving a little Team RWBBY flag.

"Give her a good thrashing!" even _Weiss _found it in herself to cheer as the buzzer went off.

**Cue – Blazblue OST – Rebellion – Ragna's Theme**

As the match began, Glynda raised her guard. If Jack wanted to fight her so badly, she'd respect that wish, and give him the fight he asked for. Tightening her grip on her riding crop, waiting for an attack, instead of moving straight into an offensive, Jack closed his eyes and deeply exhaled, before slowly opening his eyes, displaying a completely vacant look on his face. Like the lights were on but nobody was home.

His hands pushing down in front of him as he exhaled, his left hand suddenly came up and around in a circular motion, moving down and then back up across the right side of his body, his index and middle fingers extended. That same arm moving up and over his head, his right arm went across his body in a similar circular motion, like-fingers extended as well.

'_Those movements…' _the woman thought as she observed the circular motions he made with his arms. _'They could be some kind of distraction, or-'_

Jack suddenly brought his fingertips together, and the hairs on the back of her neck beginning to stand on end, Glynda threw out her weapon, a spinning purple Glyph appearing before her as Jack extended his left arm forward and the other back. At the moment his arms fully extended, a discharge of blood-red lightning leaped from his fingertips, slamming into her barrier faster than the eye could follow. The woman's brow twitching as blood-red light spilled across her barrier in front of her, she felt her Aura steadily going down until he attack abated. She felt a chunk of her Aura had vanished. Not a _big _chunk. But a chunk nonetheless, finding herself with **91% **left, while the attack had cost Jack twelve percent of his own.

Glynda didn't have long to contemplate the exact nature of _how _the Faunus threw a bolt of lightning from his fingertips, because a moment and he was running towards her, fists in front of his face and his elbows out leaving his center wide open. Before she could think of _why _he was approaching her so openly, he suddenly stuck up his thumbs, and in a move that confused her even further jabbed them into his armpits betwen the Bicep and Triceps Brachii. Whatever he did must've hit a set of pressure points, because his muscles suddenly swelled within his sleeves, even without the aid of his Semblance. The right corkscrew that followed hit her crossed arms, a great deal of weight behind the blow as she was sent skidding back, arms rattling. Seeing him coming in with a left, she raised another Glyph in front of herself, a deafening **_*THUD* _**ringing out as his blow struck home. That one blow soon turned into many as he unleashed a blitzing of blows upon her guard, dozens of blows raining with the force of a jackhammer and slowly whittling her Aura down.

**_*Crack*_**

Green eyes widened as Jack's continued rain of blows began to make cracks in the normally immaterial barrier. As one crack turned to two, and two into four, the professor realized just _why _Jack's blows were doling out such force. It was his _weights_! The Faunus was still wearing them, yet despite the extra fifty pounds on each arm, he was still able to rain blows with that much ferocity. It took her only a few seconds to realize that whatever form of Knocking he'd used on his arms, had radically increased the flow of blood and therefore _oxygen_ to the muscle fibers all throughout his arm, though by the heavy breaths passing his lips, this was taking its strain on him as much as it was her.

"Don't quit on me _now _Goodwitch!" Jack said as the strength of her barrier reached a critical juncture. "I'm just... getting... _started_!" he shouted as he leaped into the air and twisted his body, a powerful heel kick shattering the barrier completely before that foot kicked off the air and he roundhouse kicked with his other leg, Glynda crossing her arms at her ribs and blocking a hit that would've broken ribs, her arms once again rattling as the added weight of Jack's weights added further power to the strike. Skidding back, Jack didn't ease up as he ran into her guard once again, the woman crossing her hands toward the ground and slowing down the force of an uppercut aimed at her chin, only for Jack to spin around and dish out a devastating corkscrew hook to her unguarded cheek, teeth rattling as the devastating hit sent her tumbling away. Wiping a bit of blood from where she bit her cheek, Glynda leveled a glare at her opponent as she flipped back onto her feet. "C'mon, teach! Flash me the goods!" Jack said running towards her, fists raised in a boxer's stance.

'_I can't tell if making that sound dirty was his intention or not,' _Glynda thought as she backpedaled, sacrificing smaller Glyphs to weather the storm of Jack's weighted blows as his brutal offense forced her onto the defense. The blows he'd been able to connect had each taken out chunks of her Aura, but she knew he couldn't take the offensive forever. His blows were beginning to slow, and he tire. Then again, that could've been a ruse to make her drop her guard.

Those suspicions proved to be correct as the Faunus shifted his feet before appearing behind her in a blur. Years of experience allowed her to feel the subtle shift in air pressure, and when Jack delivered a high roundhouse kick to her shoulder, Glynda was able to catch it, using his momentum against him to wrench his remaining foot from the ground before throwing him into the air. A burst of her Telekinesis sent the Faunus sailing even further, his back slamming into the barrier with a loud **_*WHAM*_**, bodily dropping to the floor.

"You know, I've been doing pretty much all the work here. It'd be nice if you put in a little effort _too _instead of just _lying _there," he said rushing at her.

'_Okay, now I _know _he's doing that on purpose,' _Glynda thought as she whipped out her riding crop. Charging her Aura, at the last moment she threw a telekinetic wall his way, the Faunus looking like he was suddenly struck by the fist of an invisible giant. Though thrown back, he spun in mid-air before scraping the ground with his claws, sparks dancing as he came to a stop before lunging at her again, a zig-zag of smaller Shundo allowing him to close the gap once again.

Sending a flurry of hooks, swings, and jabs her way, the teacher furrowed her brow as she timed telekinetic bursts in time with Jack's strikes, repelling each one and bringing the fight to a standstill. When he attempted to maneuver around her in a burst of speed, she was always ready for him, a burst of TK sent his way without even looking, or a grapple seizing his limb before bodily throwing him away with a Semblance-enhanced throw.

Another minute into the fight and the Faunus lunged at her, Ruby whooping out loud as he began to spin, a veritable blur of color as he drilled through the air towards her. Throwing her riding crop out, the Faunus' forward momentum was halted, the air humming as a purple outline pulsed around him, his spinning eventually grinding to a halt before he found himself helplessly floating in mid-air. Bunching up his legs and kicking the air behind him, ringlets of smoke were discharged at his footfalls, pushing him forward before Glynda brought her crop down, the Faunus brought low with a deafening _***THUD***_, laid across the ground spread eagle. Digging his claws into the ground and pushing up against the invisible force pushing him down, Glynda's riding crop glowed brighter as she put more power into her Semblance, the purple outline around Jack's body intensifying as he was pushed down with ever greater force.

"Give up. You're not strong enough to get up from this, tired as you are," Glynda said as she continued to pin him to the ground with her Semblance. She didn't need to _beat _him, just put him in a position where he couldn't fight anymore. "You've already passed my class with flying colors. You've more than earned your A-plus," she tried to reason with him, both of their Auras steadily dropping as she continued to use her Semblance, and he tried to push back against her. This went on for several seconds, before his eyes suddenly widened, a smirk pulling at his face a moment later.

"Who said I needed to get _up_?" Jack asked as he extended his claws. Aura glowing around his hands, in a series of rapid arm movements that clawed at the ground in front of him, a cloud of dust was kicked up momentarily obscuring him from view. The sound of scraping and grunting visible from within the cloud of dust, by the time it settled, Glynda's opponent was no longer there. Only a mysterious hole that was burrowed into the floor.

"What?!" Glynda gawped in shock as her opponent disappeared from sight, her grip on him fading the moment she lost sight of him. Jack suddenly appeared again, bursting up through the ground a couple meters away, leaping up like some kind of land dolphin before digging into the ground, shimmying below the stage once again. The process repeated multiple times, Jack's comings and goings too quick and too random to stop him. Within a few minutes, around a dozen holes and tunnels had been dug underneath the arena, with Jack no longer in sight. _'This stage was made of reinforced concrete, yet he dug through it like soft dirt…' _the woman analyzed as she tried to listen for any sign of her opponent. She sure as hell wasn't going to _look _down there. She'd seen enough cartoons as a child to know how that would play out; she did _not _want the end of a shotgun staring her in the face. _'He can't come at me from the sides or above, so all that's left is-_

The next moment a pair of clawed hands burst through the ground, grabbing her by the ankles before harshly pulling her downward. However, instead of finding herself buried up to her neck like she assumed, she instead found herself stopped at waist level, or rather, just _below _waist level. Seeing how she was still above-ground, the woman planted her hands on the ground and tried to push herself up. However, whatever it was Jack had done, he had _really _wedged her in there.

Jack suddenly burst up from behind her, and at that moment she knew that she was at his mercy. However, instead of an attack when she was at her most-vulnerable, her opponent began _rapping _of all things.

"I like big _butts _and I cannot lie, you other brothers can't deny, that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get _sprung_! Wanna pull up though, 'cause you notice that butt was stuffed. Deep in the jeans she's wearin', I'm hooked and I can't stop starin'~"

At this the woman's face lit up like a Christmas tree, suddenly feeling as though everyone's eyes were locked onto the very object that Jack was rapping about, which looked slightly more plump with how she was being squeezed by the hole she'd been dragged into. What made it even worse was that some of the guys in the audience were singing along, and looking over her shoulder, she could see that Jack was dancing in place, his waist up poking out of the hole. There weren't any rules against dancing because some moves were dance-like or used for coordination purposes, and she couldn't penalize him for _singing _because that _too _was used in combat, either for rhythm or concentration.

That being said, she wasn't about to take _her _butt being the butt of a really bad joke lying down.

Coating herself in a telekinetic barrier, she turned herself around, and face to face with her opponent, fisted the front of his hoodie before bringing them practically nose-to-nose.

"What's the matter?" she asked with a smirk as he clammed up. "Cat got your tongue?"

The reddening of his amber eyes showed saying that was a mistake.

"Don't you _talk_ about my **mother** that way!" he growled angrily, Jack fisting the front of _her _shirt before rearing his head back and drawing her forward into a powerful headbutt, a loud _***CRACK* **_ringing through the area as everyone winced at the skull-bash. The woman's ears ringing, Jack hauled her out of the ground before picking her up by the back of her clothes and cramming her headfirst into the first hole he'd dug. The next moment he put the part of her that was above-ground over his knee, subjecting her to many an open-handed slap, those in the stands gasping at the scandalous nature of what was going on, others wincing at the loud _***SLAP* **_that accompanied each hit.

However, after the fifth slap, purple light began to radiate around Glynda and from the other holes, the room falling silent as the ground rumbled and an eerie hum filled the air. Jack scrambled away, and not a moment too soon, because the ground around Glynda exploded upward, taking massive chunks of the stage up with her. Massive chunks of cement floating around her like heavenly bodies, the woman's face was bright red, eyebrow twitching wildly, and whether her visage was caused by anger or embarrassment, was hard to determine.

"So… If I'd used your kinky riding crop back then instead of my hand, would you be more, or _less _angry?" Jack had the audacity to ask, a large chunk of cement larger than himself his answer. "Totally worth it!" he whooped as he dodged the chunk of rock, which burst into smaller chunks. Running the perimeter of what was left of the stage, an irate Glynda floating on high like some kind of vengeful goddess sent chunks of cement down at him like meteors, the Faunus dodging each one as their shadows told the story.

Eventually, Glynda seemed to calm, as instead of pelting the Faunus who had spanked her in front of her students with cement, she began to fill in the hole she'd upturned. By the time she was done, while the ground was noticeably uneven, all of the tunnels were now gone. Obviously, Jack's words and actions were meant to get under her skin, throw her off her game as he tried to get a rise out of her. It was the oldest trick in the book and she wasn't going to fall for it.

"So… You going to give me detention after this, or _detention-_detention?" Jack asked as he waggled his eyebrow, the woman bending and twisting her riding crop as she attempted to retain her calm. Technically, it wasn't against the rules to strike a person with an open-handed slap during Live Combat class, and there certainly weren't any restrictions against such attacks being dealt to the derriere either, anywhere, even below the belt was fair game, just frowned upon.

Like that one tiger Faunus who had a habit of naming fighting moves after heavenly bodies, the Sirius Butt-Kicking being one-such move.

'_I can't let him get to me,' _the woman told herself as she adjusted her glasses and breathed out through her nose. Even with Aura, her buttocks still ached, and she wondered whether or not certain restrictions would have to be put in place after this. He had _literally _put a teacher over his knee and given her a spanking. This was going to seriously impact her credibility among her students, and God forbid someone was _recording _just then.

"So… About that _detention-_detention?" Jack chuckled. "Will I be doing homework, or… something _else_?"

'_Fuck it. He got to me.' _"HAH!" she roared as she flung her riding crop out at him, a purple ripple of air in front of him sending the Faunus flying backwards.

"Alright! We're back in _business_!" he said with a grin as the air around him changed, past pretenses dropping as he kicked off the barrier and shot back at her, clawed hands held at his sides. Stomping down on the ground, jagged purple cracks spread across the floor from where Glynda's foot had fallen, the ground rumbling before chunks of concrete rose barring Jack's way. With clawed hands he slashed through all obstacles, clouds of dust rising up in his wake. Glynda ripped more chunks from the floor, and raising them high, brought her riding crop down, sending them plummeting to the ground with the force of a meteor shower. The entire room rumbled under the force of the barrage, an impressive cloud of dust kicked up.

The room falling silent, granules of cement clattered across what remained of the stage floor. Eventually, the dust began to settle, revealing a ruined-yet-again stage, and in the center of it stood her opponent. Jack's arms were crossed in front of himself, a metallic glint shining under the dust and granules that caked most of his form, a veritable rock garden of concrete and cement at his feet. A moment later and he released the breath he'd been holding, coughing dust out of his lungs as he caught his breath in the momentary lapse of fighting.

"My turn," Jack said ominously as he widened his stance.

Holding both arms forward, his left arm was above his right, the back of his left hand facing up, while the back of the right was facing down. Glynda, on her guard for whatever new trick Jack might throw her way, was prepared for when Jack reappeared behind her, but _not _when he zipped around her, appearing and disappearing within arms-reach of her person multiple times. At the moment her eyes lost track of him, he suddenly appeared right in front of her, arms held in the same posture and knuckles ghosting her torso.

Amber eyes widened in the stands as Jack's arms flinched forward in a single explosive movement like a piston, a high-pitched ringing-like whine sounding through the air as both Glynda _and _Jack were blown off their feet; Glynda from the column of air shooting past her body, while Jack was sent back from the recoil. Glynda's short flight through the air came to an end as her heels scraped across the ground, a small telekinetic burst behind stopping her before she hit the edge of the stage, a burst of pain ripping through her body and staining her teeth red as she coughed blood. Jack on the other hand was able to backflip in mid-air and come to a stop more-easily. However, while Glynda only coughed up a _small _amount of blood and had remained standing, Jack had fallen to his hands and knees, vomiting a liter of the stuff onto the floor in front of him with a sickening **_*SPLAT*_**.

"Damn… Looks like I _haven't _grown," Jack muttered between ragged breaths as blood trickled down his arms, his sleeves up to the shoulder turning dark red as they became saturated. Ripping his sleeves away, revealed that a number of the scars across his arms had re-opened, rather _violently _at that, and that what _wasn't _bleeding had bruised an ugly shade of purple.

'Haven't _grown?' _Glynda repeated his words in her head as she wiped the blood from the corner of her lip, her insides feeling as though she'd been hit by a raging semi. _'Who on Remnant could he be comparing himself to that he'd think he _hasn't _grown? That hit could've _killed _anyone else.'_

"Well…" Jack panted as blood began to dribble down his arms and onto the floor. "Seeing as how _that _backfired really badly, and we're both nearing our climax," he said as he grabbed the remains of his sleeves from the floor. "I guess I'd better wrap things up," he said as he shakily rose back to full height. Aura flowing out of his hands and into the bloodied cloth, a crimson colored mist began to rise from the detached sleeves, that which was stained by blood glowing a baleful red as the air around him grew cold. _"Pain…" _he muttered, so lowly that only Glynda could hear. _"_This _is why I fight…" _he chuckled darkly as his eyes snapped open, now glowing the same baleful red as his sleeves. **"HRAAAAAGH!"**

Crossing his arms over his shoulders before snapping them across his body with a roar, two large crescent blades reeking of blood screamed through the air towards her. Bringing up her riding crop and summoning an Auric barrier, the first blade was stopped easily. However, when the second collided with the first, it grew into a larger **X**-shaped blade, and sparks began dancing off her guard as Jack's own Auric construct ground against hers. From beyond the barrier, Glynda saw Jack cackling madly as he whipped with his bloodied sleeves more and more times like whips, blades large and small screaming through the air as they began to pound against her barrier. Some shattered, while others added to the **X**-shaped blade before her, forming a net of Aura mixed with blood if the smell was any indicator.

Just when it seemed like the net-like array of blades was finally going to dissipate against her barrier, Jack did something completely unexpected. Balling his bloodied sleeves into a ball, he lazily tossed it through the air, the red-stained cloth sailing through the air before it unfurled above her head, the two pieces of cloth landed atop her head with a wet _***splat***_. The coppery smell of blood filling her head as his blood ran down her hair and onto her shoulders, the woman subconsciously retched, and that single lapse in concentration was all that was needed for her guard to fall, the bladed net-like array ripping through her guard and splashing against her body, her clothing ripped to shreds while her Aura protected her body.

Ripping the bloodied tubes of cloth from her head as she wiped the blood away from her face with her sleeve, she saw her student clamp his left hand around his right wrist. His blood, instead of dripping onto the floor, instead began to move _up_, coating his right arm up to the bicep in a thin gilding of blood-colored armor that conformed to his every muscle and scar, reflecting a baleful red light as liquid filled with Aura hardened into semi-rigid hexagonal tiles.

A moment later and the ground at his feet exploded, right arm drawn back. The Faunus leaping into the air, while she didn't make the mistake of looking up into the lights, blood-stained bangs fell in front of her eyes, momentarily blinding her as Jack threw his right fist forward, a ringlet of air breaking in his fist's wake with a deafening **_*Boom* _**before a cloud of dust and dirt was kicked up once again, obscuring both fighters from view.

Seconds dragged on, but eventually the dust cleared. Glynda's eyes, which had shut in the wake of bloodied bangs, looked on to see a thin shaft of black metal interposed between herself and her opponent's knuckles. Jack's armor-laden fist stopped mid strike, Glynda's eyes panned to the right, seeing Ozpin standing by her side with his cane-sword in one hand, Beacon-issued mug in the other. Her opponent leaping backwards, a ragged breath tore its way past his lips as his right arm fell limp at his side, platelets of armor falling away before liquefying on the floor staining it red.

"You should be careful, Jack," Ozpin said as Jack let the last of his armor fall through his fingers. "An attack like that could really _hurt_ someone."

And he wasn't talking about _only _Glynda. There was a _lot _of blood on the ground that wasn't hers.

"It's called Live _Combat _Class," Jack said with shaking legs as he fought to remain standing. "Hurting people's kinda the point."

"That may be the case, but you'd already lost the match before that final blow was struck," the silver-haired man said as he pointed to the scoreboard. Glynda's Aura read at **32%**, while Jack's Aura had fallen to **23% **at the last minute.

"Huh... Guess I never noticed," Jack panted out. "That was a good romp, teach. It hurt like hell, and I'm really tender, but I had a great time. I hope we can do this again sometime."

"Okay, now I _know _you're doing it on purpose," the woman leveled a sigh his way as she brushed her bangs from her face.

"Doing _what _on purpose?" Jack asked before a shit-eating grin pulled at his features. "Why Ms. Goodwitch, you naughty girl you. That's one dirty mind you have there if _that's _how you chose to interpret my words. Hehe-ow, it hurts to laugh," he said as he wavered on his feet.

"Jack!" Ruby cried out as she ran up to the stage. "Jack, are you okay?"

"He painted half the stage with his own blood! Of _course _he isn't okay!" Weiss said as she tiptoed around the stains on the ground.

"What could possibly drive you to _do _this to yourself," Blake said gesturing to the sorry state of his arms.

"We can grill into him later. Let's get him cleaned up before he gets infected," Yang said dragging him over to the edge of the ring and sitting him down. Opening the aid kit she brought from the locker room and dousing a cloth in alcohol, she shoved a pencil between his teeth before she began rubbing his right arm down, his teeth biting into the wood while Blake proceeded to put cream and bandages over the wound, Weiss and Ruby doing the same for the other.

"It's rewarding, isn't it?" Ozpin asked taking a sip from his mug as Glynda used her Telekinesis to get as much of the Faunus' blood off her body, hair, and clothes as she could. "Shaping the next generation I mean."

"I _never _taught him to fight to the extent he became a detriment to his own health," Glynda said as she watched the team in front of her grill their most-recent teammate. They weren't _really _angry, just concerned for his well-being. Treatment he never would've found in Team DIRJ now that she thought about it. "I doubt he's taken _anything _I've taught into consideration with the way he fights."

"He's had a lot of people hurt him in his past," Ozpin stated as the last of the scars on Jack's arms got covered up. "It's only natural he would fight that way."

"Yes, but still..." Glynda said fighting the urge to rub her sore bottom. _'It's as though he knew just how to make it sting the most...' _she thought idly, a small blush forming on her cheeks as she remembered what it felt like to be treated that roughly by the opposite sex. Most men were too intimidated by her to even _try _anything, yet here was one of her own students, making her blush like a _schoolgirl_ as he touched her in... places. "I'm not even sure what that was he used at the _start_," she said as Yang and Ruby pulled Jack's bandaged arms over their shoulders and dragged him out.

"If you're referring to his Auric Lightning, it's understandable you aren't immediately familiar with it. Techniques like that have faded into obscurity in recent decades, and few people still practice the old ways when point-and-fire weapons like guns are so much faster to learn and master." _***Sip***_ "However, I didn't expect to see a practitioner of it at Beacon, let alone in this Kingdom. Moves like that you'd sooner associate with the Frontier in Mistral, or even Vacuo."

"Auric Lightning? Was it an Arte? I didn't see him use any Dust during those circular movements," Glynds stated thinking back on the fight. The recordings alone would need several playthroughs just so she could determine what to do with him when the Vytal Festival came around. After all, it wasn't like _all _of Team RWBBY could enter the 4v4 matches.

**_*Siiiip*_** "As you know, aura is divided into two halves; light and dark, positive and negative. However, much like the concept of Yin &amp; Yang, the two are irrevocably tied to one another, one unable to exist without the other. Attempting to _separate _these energies creates an imbalance, a vacuum if you will. When those two opposing energies come crashing back together, as the light and dark constituents become whole once more, a force not unlike lightning is discharged," the man explained. "Spiritually, one has to embrace both their inner light and darkness wholeheartedly, meaning those who deny and are unable to accept their own negative aspects as _truth_ cannot hope to use this technique. Mentally, it involves a complete absence of emotion and peace of mind. I imagine instead of meditating in the midst of battle, he merely used his Intuition as a shortcut. There's nothing _wrong _with that though, however, only those who have fought many battles can trust themselves wholeheartedly toward their body's own instinctual response to external stimuli, both tangible and _un_tangible, as opposed to the use of conscious thought."

"That boy is _entirely _too skilled to merely be a freshman. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's sophomore-year at _least_," Glynda said with crossed arms, thinking back on how he'd filled his own blood with Aura and turned it into armor. A highly-advanced technique that was normally used to stem the flow of blood. "It's as though he's spent the past decade learning to fight and nothing else."

"Well, that boy _is _the Demon of Whitechapel. He's bound to have a few more moves under his belt than some of his peers," Ozpin told Glynda without changing his expression. In response to Ozpin's words, the woman blinked once, then twice, then thrice-over, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. No sound came out, unable to find the right words for half a minute.

" . . . Excuse my trespass," Glynda said after the words did come. Reaching over to the headmaster and taking the mug out of his hand, she put the rim of the cup to her lips before tilting her head back. A good mouthful later and she turned to the side, spiting it out with a loud- _***FFFFfffft* **_"The Demon of _Whitechapel_!?" she cried as she uncharacteristically flipped out. "The Sweeper who left an entire Frontier town filled with rogues and ne'er-do-wells on the brink of death in less than a week?! Mr. Braxton is _that _Demon of Whitechapel!?"

"To be fair, he had _help _on that one, he didn't cause all that damage on his own. And it's not like any of them went past A-Rank. Mostly B-Rank with a single High-B that was well past his prime," Ozpin replied as he took the bug back, finding it now empty. "His work on the Mission Boards over the past couple of years is part of why I let him into this school, despite his lack of formal education in the field."

"Speaking of which, about Mr. Arc's records…" she said thinking back to the blond's admittedly _poor _showing of force.

"Mr. Arc's poor performance thus-far will catch up to him eventually," Ozpin said as he walked off. "Whether he overcomes this hurdle before him, or not, is up to him. For the time being, let us wait this out, see where the die falls."

"I can't help but feel you know something that I don't. About _all _those boys," she said pulling up the profiles of Jack Braxton, Jaune Arc, and Lie Ren on her Scroll. Unlike most of the male applicants that year, instead of needlessly _fluffing _their applications with accomplishments that meant very little, the three of them instead put the absolute minimum required for entry and nothing else. The problem with _Jaune's _records was that they were a bit stale, like someone had cut-and-paste other students' records together.

"If you wish to know more about your own pupils, open up to them. Be their friend," Ozpin suggested with a kind smile, thinking back to the time he first became a teacher, years before he became Headmaster.

And got to get rid of those _god awful _drapes in what was now his office.

"Maybe _you _could get away with something like that, but I can't exactly pull a young man under my tutelage aside without it looking suspicious," the woman huffed. "How the Council was willing to overlook you inducting Ms. Rose into this year's freshman class two years early is beyond me."

"Provide a little lip-service, and you can get them to do just about anything," the man said as the corners of his lips curved up in a mischievous smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The following evening, Jaune Arc… He was feeling… Well, he was _not _"Okay", as much as he would've denied it before.

Cardin didn't waste any time twisting the blond's arm with the oh-so-delicious blackmail he blurted out; of his own _volition _no less. After becoming the bully's bus boy for all three meals, he barely interacted with his own team outside class. And with all the homework and studying he was being made to do _for _Cardin, who had been sitting pretty for the past week while his gopher did all the heavy lifting, the blond was too-tired by the end of the day to even _talk _to his team.

Of course, the silence probably hurt _more _than any words that could've been exchanged. Every night when he entered the room, he'd look to Pyrrha, his partner, his _friend_, only to get the stink-eye from her before she turned away and excused herself to the bathroom. With how thought-provoking Jack's words were, it didn't take the blond too long to figure out that Pyrrha had _somehow _found out about his falsities as well, and decided to distance herself from him.

And how could he blame her? Despite his words being harsh and hurtful, everything Jack said was 100% true, and he had _zero _room to object. No matter what arguments, petty or otherwise he came up with, all of his reasoning would've been more lies piled on top of other lies. Everything he'd supposedly accomplished before coming to _Beacon _was a lie!

He didn't think about it at the time he handed in his (falsified) transcripts to the front desk, but not _only_ was he stealing time and resources from the school, forcing Beacon to waste them on what was quintessentially a "lost cause", he also stole someone _else's _slot at coming to Beacon. For all he knew, it could've been a natural-born prodigy, or someone who cried and sweat and bled for three years non-stop in order to even _qualify _for Beacon… and he stole that chance away from them. And now that he thought about it, that meant that everyone who _would've _been saved by that one person, who _rightfully _earned their way into Beacon, was now put in harm's way because he effectively threw them under the bus for his own sense of glory. He, who wasn't even remotely qualified to shine Cardin's _boots_, let alone attend Beacon_._

Which, by the way, he was _also _being made to do by Cardin.

And it wasn't like he could just _back out_ of this either. Even if he _did _decide to turn himself in so the torment would end, "four dudes at a minimum from any position" _be-damned_, whatever punishment he had waiting for him, Cardin would make monumentally _worse _after losing his newest flunkie_. _His father, Henry Beaufort Winchester, who in olden days would've been a Bishop, had a seat on the Vale Council that had been held by the family for generations. It didn't take a _rocket scientist _to figure out that whatever punishment the system eked out for him originally, Cardin would've gotten the system to _triple _it with a few pretty words to his father. And if _that _wasn't bad enough, Cardin's father was a _graduate _from Beacon, so the man could very well take this as a personal affront on all the effort _he _put in to get into Beacon all those years ago, and decide to make an _example _out of the floundering blond so no-one would _ever_ think of doing what he did ever again.

And it wasn't just _him _that'd be feeling the heat. His entire _family_ would be completely discredited by this scandal _as well._

Every dream for the future his sisters had planned for themselves… If word of this got out, no-one would trust _any _of them, to do _anything_. It'd completely _destroy _them! His mother had, rightfully now that Jack's words echoed through his mind, expressed concerns and even _doubts _about him going to Beacon with his paltry skill-level. All of which he'd promptly ignored before going to the bad part of town with his life's savings so he could buy less-than-legal documents from a less-than-reputable individual for less-than-altruistic reasons.

And his father… His _father _would probably disown him!

Even if by _some _miracle he managed to squeeze by Cardin _and _his father, _his _father was a Beacon graduate as well. As a child the blond grew up on his father's stories about all the hard work he put into getting into Beacon, most of those stories accompanied by scars he got before having his Aura unlocked. It went without saying that his father _more _than earned his place at Beacon. And to find out that Jaune had essentially spit and trodden upon all that hard effort, dragging his family name through the mud in the process, a stain on their reputation that would never be removed, well… He'd be _lucky _if the man disowned him.

Almost _every _member of his family, other than "Little" Louise who god bless her soul, in all her innocence _already _saw Jaune as the hero he postured himself to be, had expressed doubts and concerns about him going to Beacon when he sprung it up on them weeks ago. And like a pig-headed ass he'd ignored _all _of them, thinking that he _knew _better! That they were _wrong _and _he _was right!

'_Why… Why did I think lying my way into Beacon was going to be _okay_?' _the blond thought to himself as he trudged his way back to his room from Cardin's place, having dropped off the last batch of schoolwork for the evening and shined his last set of boots. _'Why did I think that everyone was going to be _cool _with it?' _he thought as he reached for the doorknob, Jack, _and _Cardin's, mocking laughter echoing through the insides of his skull. Waving his Scroll over the lock, he quietly cracked the door open-

"How come Jaune gets home so late?" Nora asked. Based on the sounds of creaking bed springs in the background, the excitable girl was probably jumping on her mattress. Again.

"He's become rather _scarce _since he started fraternizing with Cardin," Ren went on to say, the bona-fide ninja's words weighing heavily on him. And why wouldn't they? Ren managed to fight one of Beacon's top dogs to a standstill. And _win_! Come to think of it, did Jack bleed on _all _his strong opponents?

"That's _weird_… Doesn't he knew we have a field trip tomorrow? We need our **rest**!" she proclaimed as she landed loudly on her bedsprings.

"I'm sure our leader knows _exactly _what he's doing," Pyrrha bit out. Jaune didn't have to see her face to know that she was angry. Probably scowling.

"Mmmm… I guess so," Nora said, the blond hanging his head as he closed the door.

"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby said out-of-nowhere, the girl giggling at his startled reaction. "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?"

"Oh, uh, nope!" he said raising his Scroll and attempting to laugh. "Got it right here… Yeah…"

"So! Where have you been lately?" the girl asked innocently. If the blond didn't know any better, he'd have thought that Ruby was "Little" Louise's twin sister at times.

"I uh…" he said trying to come up with something, only to sigh and lower his head. "I messed up. I did something I really, _really _shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, Jack is laughing at me behind my back, and Pyrrha won't even _talk _to me and…" he sighed heavily through his nose. "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea," he sighed as he pressed his back to the door and slid to the floor. "I'm a failure," he said in depression.

"Nope!"

"Nope?" he asked looking up at her in surprise.

"Nope! You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not _allowed _to be a failure."

"But… What if I'm a failure at being a leader?"

"Hmmm…" Ruby hummed as she tilted her head in thought for a moment. "Nope!"

"You know…" Jaune laughed out weakly as she joined him on the floor. "You're not the easiest person to talk to about this stuff."

"Nope!" Ruby said with a smile, Jaune leaning further into the door some more. "Jaune. Maybe you were a failure when you were a _kid_…" Jaune groaned and sunk lower to the floor. "And you might've even been a failure the first day we _met_…" she went on, groaning and sinking to the floor lower-still. "But you _can't_ be one now. You know why?"

"Uhhh… Because…?"

"Because it's not just about _you _anymore. You've got a _team _now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us," she said getting up from her seat, hands on her hips as she spoke. "We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, and I think that can be you," she said walking over to the door. "Have a good night, Jaune!" she said going inside.

Ruminating over the younger girl's words, Jaune was suddenly filled with confidence. Pushing himself from the ground, facing the door, ready to face his team, _and _Pyrrha, just as he was about to turn the knob, his Scroll beeped in his pocket. Opening it up, he saw Cardin's contact number, a message playing for him.

"Hey! It's your good buddy Cardin! I know you've probably been busy with that Herbology project I gave you, buuuut… I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier Wasps," the red-head had said, the blond gulping in the present. "And make sure they've got some **really **big stingers! It's important, so don't' screw this up!"

The Scroll closing, Jaune wearily hung his head, the surge of energy once flooding through his body and spirit screeching to a grinding halt as he turned away from the dorm. A minute later when he got outside, his Scroll rung again. The blond groaned, wondering what Cardin wanted _now_, only to be surprised when he saw it was _Jack _on the other end of the line. And on a video call to boot.

"Heya, Jaune! How's my favorite juvenile delinquent doing?"

"What do you _want _Jack?" Jaune groaned. The guy just _loved _rubbing salt in the wound, didn't he?

Oh wait, his mother and sister had been violently murdered. Of _course _he loved rubbing salt in people's wounds.

"Oh, just thought I'd give you a little something," Jack said as he fiddled with his Scroll on his own end. "You'll probably notice that I've sent you a nice sum of one-thousand Lien to your account," the Faunus said. Jaune opened up another window, and true to form, his account had one-thousand more Lien than it did a few minutes ago.

"Okay, but _whyyyyy_?" Jaune asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering just _why _he was handed one-thousand Lien. Sure, this was probably small-potatoes for a guy who got a hundred-thou at the beginning of the year, but _still_…

"Oh Jauney-boy, this is just _basic _insurance," the Faunus said. "Don't. Fuck. Me. **Ever**."

"I can guess why you grate on people's nerves sometimes," the blond muttered out. The smile and tilt of the Faunus' head he saw on the other end of the line did _not _inspire confidence in terms of his own future wellbeing.

"Glad you under_stand _so well," Jack said with a smile. "Byyyyyyye…" he bid farewell _super_-fucking cryptically as the video on the other side slowly faded to black, before cutting out altogether.

'_Oh god, I'm so fucking hosed,' _Jaune whimpered to himself as he walked off to get Cardin's Rapier Wasps. The blond thought back to what he'd had for dinner that one fateful night, because he must've been high as a fucking _kite _to think that doing what he did to get into Beacon was a good idea.

It all seemed so perfect into his head. Lie his way into Beacon (for the greater good), catch up to his peers, become a big hero, pick up a cute girl in a dungeon somewhere, become high school (college?) sweethearts, graduate, get married, and do heroic things to tell the grand kids about. But now that he was really _here_, failing his team, whipping boy for his peers... When even the guy _making _those false transcripts began poking holes in your plan, it was probably a good idea to listen to him... which he didn't...

"How the hell will I even _catch _those fucking things," Jaune groaned as he headed for the edge of campus, remembering something about a nest of Rapier Wasps out by the soccer field.

Tomorrow was going to be hell, he just knew it. Still, at least things couldn't get any _worse_.

For all he knew he could be _allergic _to the stuff he was being made to get.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**OMAKE:**

"**Hey Jack?" Ruby said to him the moment he came back from that phone call he said he had to make.**

"**Yeah Ruby?" the Faunus asked as he sat on his bed.**

"**Level with me here," Ruby said as she slowly leaned towards him, their noses practically touching. "Are you a superhero?"**

" **. . . What?" Jack asked once he processed the question, Weiss parroting his statement while Blake looked up from her book, while the conversation-to-come had Yang's undivided attention.**

"**Are. You. A. Super. Hero?" the red-tipped brunette said in full seriousness, hands on her hips and cape fluttering in the wind from the cracked window.**

" **. . . Why do you ask?" Jack wondered with a raised eyebrow.**

"**You shot **_**lightning **_**out of your fingertips, and you didn't use Dust! What **_**else **_**am I supposed to think?!" Ruby asked exasperatedly as she flailed her arms above her head. "Waaaaait…" she hummed as she leaned towards him again, their noses **_**literally **_**touching now. "Was that…" she said looking from side to side, ignoring the other three spectators. "**_**Magic?**_**" she whispered as though she were discussing some big conspiracy. Weiss, Blake, and Yang all fell out of their respective beds in response to that outlandish statement.**

"**No, Ruby. **_**That **_**wasn't magic," Jack answered with a completely straight face.**

"**Then what even **_**was **_**that?" she asked. Her answer came when Jack leaned over the side of his bed and began fishing for something underneath. A couple seconds later and an old hard-cover book was tossed to her. "Bending the Elements within One's Self?" she asked reading the cover. The cover itself was an unassuming shade of brown, and on it was the silhouette of a man meditating, a ying-yang symbol set within his abdomen. "What's it about?"**

"**Spirituality mixed with martial arts," Jack answered.**

"**You had me at martial arts," Yang said taking a seat on Jack's bed.**

"**Can we just go to bed already?" Weiss asked. "Our written finals are tomorrow, on top of that trip to the Foreverfall Forest, and I want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed."**

"**That sounded **_**really **_**racist," Yang deadpanned.**

"**Just go to sleep," the heiress bit out. The lights going out a minute later, everyone crawled into bed, whatever exhaustion they felt after the day's activities lulling them into a blissful slumber, the end of the first semester right around the corner.**

" **. . . "**

" **. . . "**

" **. . . "**

" **. . . "**

"**Hey Jack?"**

"**What **_**now **_**Ruby?" Jack, and everyone else, groaned.**

"**What was that other thing you did? Was **_**that **_**magic? Or does **_**that **_**make you a superhero?"**

"**Those were Blood Artes. Now go to **_**sleep **_**or I'll hit you with my **_**Knocking Gun**_**."**

"**That sounded kinda dirty," Weiss blanched.**

"**How **_**big **_**is your Knocking Gun?" Yang asked cheekily.**

**"Play your cards right and you might find out," Jack replied with a grin that glinted off the moonlight.**

"**Just go to sleep," Blake yawned as Jack rolled over. **

**"And keep it in your pants," Weiss bit out.  
**

**"Why would Jack keep a gun in his pants?" Ruby asked innocently. "That seems like a safety hazard."**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Originally this chapter was going to be put AFTER the end of Jaunedice, but take place before with an "EXTRA" prefix in front of it. But then I realized that'd mess with the flow of the story too much, so I thought of a way for Glynda's final to take place before the others' (or Professor Peach's at the least), and I finally found a way.**

**With "How I Got These Scars" and the chapters leading up to it explaining a fairly large portion of Jack's backstory, I now feel more comfortable **_**having **_**Jack fighting someone on Glynda's level and winning; though just to be CLEAR, she WAS holding back a considerable margin, and there are damn good reasons Jack can't go 100% balls-to-the-wall, so it isn't like at-present he'd be able to win if **_**she **_**were going in for the kill too.**

**Most stories with OCs (if you can even CALL them that half the time, most of it they're just an already-established character with a new name and outfit slapped on) tend to make them too powerful from the get-go, or make them too-powerful too-quickly with a disproportionate amount of effort put in on their part. Since Jack's growth as a fighter has been cultivated through pretty much MOST of his life, the Killing Bites being his "crucible" that forged him into the individual he is today, I'm hoping that his rate of growth and now-current portrayed strength is **_**believable**_**.**

**And I'll state once again, Glynda was holding back. Glynda didn't want to hurt Jack too badly after the injuries he's accrued from Nora, Ren, and Weiss. Jack on the other hand fought (**_**as**_**) full-kilter (**_**as he could**_**) because he knew that if he **_**didn't**_**, he wouldn't be able to land a hit on her. Think of it like Team 7 against Kakashi. They were so radically outclassed that if **_**they **_**held back, they'd **_**never **_**be able to hit him. Like Level 1 Adventurers trying to fight a Level 50 Field Boss with Speed-Buffs.**

**Anyhow, in case I haven't said it before, I'll say it again: After Foreverfall, ALL-ORIGINAL CONTENT! WHOOOO!**

**It's heavily-implied in Volume 3 that the Vytal Festival takes place in the fall (ironic or unironic?), and that AFTER "The Fall", several months pass leading into winter of that year. I'm thus able to infer that the Vytal Festival was ORIGINALLY a harvest festival, and with commerce at its highest, **_**illegal **_**fighting tournaments became legal, and thus the Vytal Festival was born. Given several **_**months **_**are likely to have passed from the beginning of the year to the Vytal Festival, Glynda **_**herself **_**saying it would be "a few more months" until the Vytal Festival, it'll be quite a while until "The Stray" and "Black and White", with Volume 2 taking place just-after.**

**This means there's a **_**lot **_**of room in the narrative for character development.**

**How Volume 3 ended (as shocking as I assume it was for most people) may or may not influence how Giant-Slayer plays out in these regards. Even BEFORE "Battle of Beacon", I'd already had SOME idea of how I wanted things to play out, given how the Vytal Festival prior had been going. There are a LOT of new variables in this re-telling of Monty Oum's RWBY (may he be happily making web-animations for angels), so don't be surprised if things turn out slightly differently. I use the term "slightly" rather loosely, since I have no idea HOW MUCH I'll change things up. For all you know, things could be better, or much, MUCH worse.**

**Anyhow, I hope you continue to enjoy my work, and if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or even grievances, please don't hesitate to put them down below and hit the Send button.**


	26. Fallen Far

**I just want to state for the record, that when Jack shouted "Thirty-Percent Full-Cowl!" last-chapter, that was **_**not **_**Jack USING "One for All" (Boku no Hero Academia). It was simply the whole "shout-out-your-attacks" thing that anime protagonists use as a Focii; like the Pre-Shot Routine in Toriko only it's done with words. In case you haven't read the Author's Notes in previous chapters, or I simply haven't said it outright, Jack's Semblance is the "Kaio-Ken" in the same way that Yang's is turning "Super Saiyan". However, I'm not going to have him shout "Kaio-Ken" because, for what reason would he shout "World King Fist" in another language?**

**Just wanted to get that one out of the way since I got complaints about it. Also, since I haven't done this in a while, and I need to give credit where credit is due, a brief disclaimer.**

**DISCLAIMER:**

**I do not own RWBY, Halo, Attack on Titan, Durarara!, Destiny, Mass Effect, Dragonball Z, Metal Gear, Mahou Sensei Negima!, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, Terminator, One Piece, Hajime no Ippo, UQ Holder!, Final Fantasy VII, Agent 007, Cyborg 009-1, Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist, Tales of (Franchise), Inuyasha, Katanagatari, Killing Bites, Triage X, DEATH BATTLE!, Gate – Thus the J SDF Fought There!, The Boondocks, Toriko, Boku no Hero Academia, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Deadman Wonderland, and/or any other Intellectual Properties used and/or references used in this story. All Intellectual Properties are the property of their respective IP-Holders. All musical cues and scores are owned by their respective owners and/or creators. All Original Characters are property of either myself or those that conceived them. **

**Please support the official release.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Jack, are you _sure _you're okay?" Ruby asked the next morning as Jack proceeded to remove the bandages from his arms.

"I'm fine. See?" Jack asked as he removed the bandages. Lo and behold, they were good as neeeeeew…? Okay maybe not "good _as _new", but at least there weren't any _more _scars then there were before. The ones that "exploded" were just a bit red, while most of the bruising on the rest had gone away.

"How can you even _move_ after doing that to yourself?" Weiss asked as she brushed her hair. "Most people with injuries that serious wouldn't be able to lift their arms for _weeks_, yet you claim to be "_good as new" _after not even a _day _has passed," she said making air bunnies.

"I haven't been "_good as new" _since I was nine years old," the Faunus deadpanned.

"Oh… right… Since your mother died-I mean, was _murdered_," the heiress corrected, not wanting to downplay the gravity of that event. Sure, she'd had people she'd _known _get killed, but after thinking back on their involvement with her father's company without any bias… she was willing to _contemplate _that _maybe_… some of them had it coming. That didn't make it _right_, but she could understand how Jack felt about his mother being murdered simply because, instead of for a _reason._

"Yes… Then…" Jack said in a tired tone, Yang flinching at the dead look in his eyes.

"So… um…" Ruby said trying to break the ice as she fixed her bed-head. "We should probably get cleaned up. Big _day _ahead of us."

"Right. I'll get out of your hair," Jack said grabbing his toiletries. Making for the door, Yang's hand suddenly clamped around his wrist, holding him in place.

"Can you even clean yourself with the way your arms are now?" she asked looking him in the eye.

"I promise to only _try_," Jack answered.

" . . . I'm going with you," Yang said grabbing her own clothes and toiletries, much to Weiss' abject shock.

"What?!"

"Oh don't have a _cow_ Weiss. It's not like I haven't seen it all before," Yang waved her off.

"She _is _right you know," Jack said without an ounce of shame.

"I did _not _need to hear that!" the heiress yelped.

"Look at it this way. Now only _three _of you have to use the ensuite before we can leave for breakfast," Yang reasoned. "And it's not like anyone _else _uses the public showers."

"Yeah, but _still_-"

"For someone who's always insistent on getting to class early, you're sure wasting a lot of time," Yang said linking her arm with Jack's and dragging him off.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I still can't get used to seeing that," Yang said as she watched Jack disrobe, the collage of scars draped across his back coming into view. "All those scars… the proof you used to be a slave…"

"Speak up, Yang. I don't think they heard you in _Vacuo_," Jack bit out.

"I'm sorry. I just… I guess I'm not used to it yet."

"Yes, Yang, I get it. You're shocked. You're horrified. Get over it."

"Hey, what's your _problem_? I'm trying to _sympathize_ with you here!"

"I don't _need _your sympathy!" Jack growled as he rounded on her, blood-red eyes fading to amber before going back to a soothing jade. "I need… I need a friend… Someone who I can trust watch my back when I can't do it myself," he said withdrawing into himself.

"Jack… I'm so sorry, I didn't know…" Yang said putting a hand on his shoulder. "Didn't you have any friends before coming here?"

"A few… Though I can't exactly call them up on speed dial," Jack said making his way to the far-left shower, Yang right behind him. The two hanging their robes on the hooks, Jack stepped under the water and let it fall on him. Yang made to enter, but Jack held up a hand stopping her. After a minute he finally waved her in, Yang standing under a warm shower of water instead of rushing headlong into cold.

"Well, how do you get in touch with them?" Yang asked as she stood back-to-back with Jack under the hot water. Jack was definitely muscular, front-to-back, but the scars gave it such a weird _texture _when her skin was flush against his own.

"Carrier pigeon."

" . . . You can't be serious," she said looking him in the eye. " . . . You _are_ serious, aren't you?"

"The pigeons I use are smarter than you'd think," the Faunus replied as he put some strawberry-scented shampoo into his hands.

"Where do your friends _live_ then?" Yang asked as Jack began working it into her hair.

"Here… There… Everywhere," he said brushing it down her long mane, the girl working over her body with a bar of soap. "Like I may've said before, I've been all over the world, but I never stayed in any one place for more than a couple months before work took me elsewhere."

"Did your work as a Sweeper and Bishoku-ya really move you around so much?"

" . . . Yes."

"You sounded like you hesitated for a second."

"Yang… Someday, I'll tell you everything… but that time simply isn't now," he said as he finished Yang's hair to an acceptable level, the girl turning him around and putting some of his own head-and-shoulders into _his _hair, the Faunus working over his own torso with a bar of soap. When he tried to work the suds up his arms, Yang took the bar from his hands and set him down before going to work on him. The blond seemed to get some satisfaction over running her hands slowly over the muscles on his arm, before slowly working over each of his fingers. "Yang, stop playing with my fingers," the Faunus deadpanned as Yang's movements became more sensual. "A raging boner's the last thing I need before finals."

"Sorry," the blond said as she relented. On the inside, she marveled at the amount of self-control the guy had to stay flaccid before the temple that was her bodacious body. Thanks to the inter-web, she was _very _intimately aware of what certain aspects of the more-masculine sex looked like, so it wasn't like she'd never seen one before.

Of course, Sex Ed at Signal had _nothing _on showering with a hot guy with a troubled past and a fairly-large penis.

"You're thinking about my _penis _right now aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"You're staring right at it."

" . . . I deny nothing."

"Of course you don't," the Faunus sighed as he began to run suds along his legs as Yang took the other arm.

"You know… We could probably make this _our _spot," Yang said looking around the stall, thinking of _other _things they could do there other than get clean. "Maybe put a plaque with our names on it over the door. Keep out the unworthy."

"Somehow I doubt Glynda will want you making this a habit," Jack said rinsing the suds off his body.

"Hmmm…" Yang hummed as she crossed her arms, which accentuated her voluptuous chest. "I think there's a clause in the Roommate Agreement that says you can't go into our bathroom by yourself as long as the dorm showers are available."

"Right, but what does that have to do with-"

"We can be _bathroom _buddies. You wash my back, I wash yours. Among _other _things~" she purred as she rubbed shoulders with him.

"I'm not sure if I should fear for my chastity or not."

"Oh like you ever had that to _begin_ with. It's really obvious you've _"stormed the trenches" _more than once with how you carry yourself. That and you aren't blushing and stuttering like a cherry-boy after seeing _these _babies," she said making her chest bounce.

" . . . Fair point," Jack said with a shrug.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The breakfast menu in the cafeteria that morning was _all _about the brain food. With finals only minutes away, mental acuity was what everyone was in desperate need of. They had roasted beets drizzled in honey, for circulation to the brain; there was sage to prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory; grass-fed beef for iron; sardines chock full of EPA and DHA, supercharged with omega-3 fatty acids to bolster communications among braincells (Blake had a _field _day with this); eggs for choline; yerba mate herbal tea for short-term brain power and caffeine; oats for carbohydrates and all-day energy; lentils brimming with folate, a B vitamin shown to help boost brain power; ground flaxseed to improve the workings of the cerebral cortex to help with the process of sensory information; walnuts for a synergy of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids; and then there were spinach and other leafy green vegetables.

There were also the _more _savory options like bacon, sausage, pancakes, bacon, hash browns, and bacon, but clearly whoever planned the menu for the morning was thinking all about brain power.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Uuuuugh…" Ruby groaned as she let her head rest on the table. "I can't feel my cortexes anymore…" she groaned, her head flushed bright red and pulsing like a giant vein.

"The plural of cortex is cortices, and quit being such a baby," Weiss sighed as she drank a cool ice water. "Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck's finals weren't _that _hard."

"Easy for _you _to say. You don't have a life like the rest of us. We don't study twenty-four-seven like _you _do," Yang groaned as she placed a bag of ice atop her head.

"Hey!"

"Relax, Weiss, she didn't mean anything by it," Jack said as Blake continued to stuff her face with sardines, sardines, and, you guessed it, _more sardines_! "If it makes you feel any better, _I _think your brain is nice and sexy."

"Oh stop…" Weiss flushed slightly. "You're embarrassing me."

"That isn't the _only _thing he's doing to you," Yang deadpanned.

"Oh eat a baguette of dicks!"

"Maybe I _will _while I'm here," Yang said grinning cheekily. "Hey Jack, can I talk to you in the bathroom for, like, ten minutes?"

"Perhaps we should hurry up and eat," Pyrrha said between bites. "We may only have one final and a field trip left, but we shouldn't get complacent."

"_Speaking_ of which…" Jack said, only for the red-head to level a glare at him, his finger currently pointed to the vacancy among their ranks. "Shutting up."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Professor Peach's final played out much like the rest did. Several pages of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions completed with #2 pencils as-provided. There wasn't anything new or exotic about the nature of their questions, all of it was stuff they'd gone over before.

Once the last student had finished their written final, everyone was herded out to the airfield in front of the school for their trip to the Foreverfall Forest via a mixed fleet of Bullheads and Pelicans. Peach himself had said that what was going to be asked of them wasn't _too _extreme, but that the nature of their trip was more like a _reward _for all the hard work they'd been putting in. Due to the resurgence of interest in foraging for Ingredients, he announced that students would be free to gather whatever nature's bounty they wished. As long as doing so didn't interfere with the forest ecosystem.

As the airships landed in a large clearing, everyone in the freshman class, and a few from the sophomores, disbanded. Most were wearing their combat attire, while Jack was wearing his Gourmet Hunter uniform, a fresh set of bandages around his arms so nothing would get on them. As Professor Peach guided the sophomores in one direction, Glynda guided the freshman the other way.

" . . . Okay, I know we just got here, but where are Jack and Nora?" Weiss asked noticing two vacancies in their group a minute into the walking later.

"I don't know. They were here just a second-" _***GRAAAAAAWRRRR* **_"-ago…"

Leaves and bushes rustling, everyone turned to the shadows in the forest off to their right, everyone collectively going for their weapons as an Ursa-like shadow began coming their way, a familiar hammer-wielding shadow riding it bareback. However, when the creature suddenly came into the light, it was revealed _not _to be a Creature of Grimm, but a _giant _bunny rabbit covered head-to-toe in thick brown fur, massive fangs like a sabertooth tiger instead of bucked rabbit teeth sticking out of its mouth. Nora was whooping and hollering as she swung her hammer around, swatting the Leporidae in the tuckus and spurring it forward.

Leaves up above rustling, Jack emerged from a flurry of red autumn-colored leaves in his Bishoku-ya attire. His right hand held out, those watching could see him brandishing some kind of tool. It had a black rectangular handle that fit inside his hand, a smaller yellow block slotted into the bottom, while a pair of silver tongs not unlike those of a tuning fork sticking out the top, a silver band of metal binding the tongs together an inch away from where the plastic handle stopped.

"Don't let go, Nora!" Jack shouted as his left arm wrapped around the Saber Rabbit in a half-headlock. Twirling the weapon in his right hand until he was holding it reverse-grip, he then jabbed it into the meat of the creature's neck. A loud _***CHWING* **_noise sounded out as something fired from the tongs of the device, the giant rabbit suddenly seized up, its eyes rolling up in the back of its head before it suddenly fell forward with a loud _***THUD***_. As the leaves on the ground shook from the impact, Jack and Nora both came tumbling off its back, rolling across the ground before coming to a stop, Nora's body flush against his, their lips mashed together.

At that point everyone stopped and stared, Yang gawping while Weiss was trembling for some reason as the two's lip contact went on for several seconds. When the orange-haired girl began probing Jack's mouth with her tongue, Pyrrha flushed as red as her hair, while Ren seemed strangely nonplussed about it. After a minute, Nora took hold of the Faunus' shoulders before sitting up, straddling him and separating their lips with a loud _***Pop***_, a strand of saliva breaking between them.

"Has anyone ever told you that you taste like honey before? 'Cause it's really sweet," Nora said cheekily.

"I've been told that once or twice," Jack said as Nora pulled him to his feet. "Has anyone told you that you taste like _syrup _before?"

"Well, one time Ren said that when he accidentally-"

"Nora!"

"Coming, Ren!" Nora said in a chipper tone as she skipped along, leaving Jack to hoist the Ursa-sized rabbit onto his back. Ruby was about to ask him _how _he was hoisting something so large like it was nothing, only to retract her question when she saw that in his Gourmet Hunter uniform, he was no longer wearing his weights that went with his Huntsman-in-Training uniform.

"That… is one big rabbit," Blake gawped taking the sight in. Right now the thing looked like a giant, over-sized stuffed toy from the fair.

"When the hell did _that _happen!?" Yang squawked as she pointed between Jack and Nora.

"Nothing happened. It was a complete accident," Jack stated plainly.

"_My scrawny white _ass_ it is," _Weiss huffed under her breath.

"Seriously. It was a complete accident," Jack repeated. "Sure, Nora's hot in a short-and-curvy kinda way, but our relationship is strictly non-platonic."

"And the _tonsil tennis _you two played a minute ago?"

"I'm sure her short attention span made her curious, nothing more."

" . . . It'd _better _be," Yang huffed as she turned around, a crate tucked under her arm.

"Hey Jack, what's that you got there?" Ruby asked pointing to the weapon in Jack's breast pocket. "And how'd that little thing kill that rabbit in one shot?"

"This? It's a Knocking Gun," Jack said taking it out for the girl to see, Ruby holding it with all the reverence one would a baby bird. "And no, it's not dead," he elaborated.

"Oooooh… How does it work?" Ruby asked as they went back to following the group.

"It uses biodegradable needles to deliver electric shocks to primary nerve clusters," Jack explained as he adjusted the giant rabbit onto his back. "It's like a taser, but much more effective. Since the needles are biodegradable, it doesn't cause any permanent damage to whatever it's used on, though this thing's going to be made into cuts of meat long before it'll have to worry about _that_."

"Hey Jack!" the hammer-wielding girl called out.

"Yes, Nora?"

"Can I have the skin when you're done with it? I wanna make a rabbit-skin rug!"

"I'm sure we can find a craftsman back at Beacon who'll be willing to tan the hide."

"Yaaaaay!"

"Wait, you can actually _eat _that thing?" Blake said looking to the monstrosity Jack had hoisted on his back.

"Yep. It eats well from nature's bounty, so it's got lots of nutrients packed into it. Plus it counts as white meat and nothing else. Should go _great _with a berry dressing, especially if we take ingredients from its natural habitat."

"And you two just _happened _to find it minutes after we left?" Yang asked suspiciously.

"Well, Nora thought it was an Ursa at first, but then she saw that it wasn't and she pestered me about what it was. After that we formulated a plan. Once she got it under the tree I was in, I dropped down from its blind spot and brought it down."

"And you're _sure _this thing won't get back up or anything?" Weiss asked putting a wary glance at it. The size of that thing bordered on _ridiculous_.

"I hit its primary nerve cluster dead-center. It won't be moving again for another twenty-four hours," Jack said adjusting it on his back.

"Can we use this on Grimm?" Ruby asked looking at the "gun" in her hand. "It would be _way _easier to kill them if they couldn't fight back."

"Grimm evaporate when you kill them, or when you start cutting them open for a biopsy, so there's no way of knowing where their primary nerve clusters are, or if they even _have _any," Jack answered.

"Won't _anywhere _work?" Yang asked, hearing the taser comparison.

"If you don't hit a primary nerve cluster, all you'll do is numb a few inches of tissue, nothing more," Ren stated.

"Oh," Ruby hummed.

"Ahem!" Glynda coughed getting everyone's attention. "Yes, students, the Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. However, we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked you all to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

The group coming to a stop, Jaune grunted as he carried a large case filled with jars and tools. Bumping into Cardin, the bully scowled at him, the blond attempting to feign innocence by whistling tnelessly.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of Red Sap at the minimum. That being the case, if you have auxiliary jars or other carrying cases, you're more than welcome to collect extra for your own culinary use. As… _some _of you have already done," she said turning her attention to the Saber Rabbit that Nora was now treating like a giant stuffed toy, making it hug a neutral-faced Ren. "But be wary that this forest is full of the Creatures of Grimm. Be sure to stay within visual range of your teammates, and rendezvous back at the clearing to leave at four o'clock. Above all else… have fun," she said shifting uncomfortably.

"What's _her _problem?" Yang asked as Glynda walked off.

"Probably still sore from the spanking I gave her yesterday," Jack shrugged.

"Both literally _and _metaphorically," Ruby stated. "But mostly literally."

"Her being _sore_, or the spanking?" Jack asked back.

"I still can't believe you did that," Weiss blanched. "And in front of _everyone _no less!"

"All's fair in love and war," Blake said as she watched Nora set the Saber Rabbit down, a little pink flag with her emblem sticking up out of its thick fur.

"I claim this land in the name of the Pancake Empire!"

"Nora, please treat the Saber Rabbit with a little bit of dignity."

"So… How do we know if we've drilled into the right spot, again?" Ruby asked looking at the trees.

"Didn't you pay attention in Professor Peach's class?" Weiss asked.

" . . . Yes."

"Liar."

"I think you're all forgetting we have a bona-fide Gourmet Hunter in our ranks," Yang said linking arms with Jack. "All we need to do is point this handsome specimen in the right direction, and we'll be _swimming _in Red Sap!"

"I have no idea how to harvest this stuff."

" . . . What?" Yang asked as she felt her plan crumble.

"Red Sap is completely unique to the Forever Fall Forest, and I've never been here before," Jack answered. "That being the case, I _did _ask some of the other Bishoku-ya about this place, and _they _gave me some tips," he went on to explain as he reached into the kit the Team was given. "First off, the Forever Fall Forest's climate is perpetually autumn, regardless of what season it is, so sap flow conditions are going to be good all-around. Next, we need to drill the hole," he said taking out a manual hand drill. "It's important to avoid previous tapholes and the associated stain columns, like this one here," he said pointing to a dried stain of red sap on the side of one of the trees, "as well as any other defects and rotten areas on the trunk, large seams and wounds the easiest to identify." At this he pointed out other such flaws on the trees. "Also, you need to avoid _old _tapholes. The most-important part of this is to drill into clear, white sapwood. Everyone pick a tree that meets the above criterion, and start drilling," he said passing out drills to his Team, Pyrrha leading the charge with Ren and Nora while Jaune was god _knows _where.

"So… Do I need to drill at an angle, or what?" Ruby asked as she looked for a good spot.

"If you paid attention in class, you'd remember to drill up at a very slight angle. Also, we need to be sure that the drill bits are both clean, and relatively new," Weiss said looking over her instrument. "After you pull the drill out of the tree, you need to examine the shavings to make sure they're pure white. If you get brown or dark-colored shavings, you've drilled into a bad part of the tree, and your sap will have off-flavors imparted in it."

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack said from on high as he hopped between tree branches, sniffing the leaves in a few places before moving onto another tree.

"What're you doing up there?" Ruby asked.

"I'm trying to see if there's some kind of discernible pattern between the good-looking trees or the bad-looking ones, as well as their scents," the Faunus answered. "How're things on your end?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A while later in the Forever Fall Forest, Team CRDN was lazily loafing about, hands behind their heads as they took in the scenery, the fresh air, and the clear blue skies. Eventually, the team's newest flunkie, Jaune Arc, came stumbling into the clearing. Armfuls of Red Sap jars in his arms, he teetered on his feet before falling flat on his face, the aforementioned jars clattering across the ground.

"Hey, great work, Jauney boy! Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" Cardin asked.

"I think I'm _allergic _to this stuff…" Jaune groaned cross-eyed.

"Yeah that's great," the red-head waved off. "So! Jaune. I bet you're asking yourself, 'Why did my good buddy Cardin ask me to collect _seven _jars of tree sap, when there's only _five _of us?'"

"That is one of the many questions… I have asked myself today… yes…" Jaune groaned, exhausted from the effort it took to find a good spot to drill for seven different trees, as well as getting the taps in _just _right.

"Well come with me, and you'll find out," Cardin said leading the others along, Jaune moaning and gulping in worry. Their short walk took them to a hilltop overlooking the other students a few minutes later. High enough they had a good view, but low enough they could get down in a hurry. Team CRDL+1 snake-crawled to the edge of the ridge, Jaune squeezed between Cardin and Russel as they took in the sights below them.

The only thing disturbing the majestic scenery of Forever Fall were the Beacon students happily collecting sap. Ruby, having finished her tap, stuck a finger into the crimson-colored stream and brought it to her lips, an appreciative smile on her face before she stuck her head under the stream and let it pour into her gaping mouth. Weiss, marginally unused to physical labor, had a tired but satisfied look on her face as her tap began producing sweet sweet sap. Blake looked nonplussed as she read from her book, occasionally looking up to check the progress on her tap, while Yang had an unfolded lawn chair of all things as she oversaw several other taps, Jack off to the side making markings on the sides of their auxiliary jars. Ren had just finished collecting a full jar of sap from a tree, passing the filled bottle to Nora and swapping it out with another, only for a loud slurping sound to turn him around, the red-head now sporting a large syrupy stain across her grinning face as she hid an empty jar behind her back.

"Cardin. Wh-what's going on?" Jaune asked worriedly.

"Payback," Cardin growled at the unsuspecting group sharply.

_*Gulp* _"Payback?"

"What, am I speaking _French _here?" Cardin asked as he grabbed the back of Jaune's head before pointing him towards the only visible Faunus out of the group. "Jack… I fucking hate that guy," he growled. "Guy's so smug, walking around Beacon like he _owns_ the place… biting the hands of his betters, not knowing where he belongs…" he said as he pushed a jar into Jaune's hand. "And I know you feel the same way."

"Wh-What?"

"C'mon, it's just us guys here. No need to hide it, you hate the guy as much as _we _do. That dumb animal's been giving you a hard time too. So here's me, as a _good friend_, giving you the chance to give him his comeuppance," he said giving Jaune a pat on the back as he stepped back. "You _know _you want to."

_**"Go home you worthless sack of dog vomit!"**_

_**"You don't have what it takes to be a Huntsman!"**_

_**"Weiss would never love a gutless loser like you!"**_

_**"You're no hero and you never will be!"**_

_**"I knocked your mother last night!"**_

Okay, so maybe Jack didn't say _those _things… but the blond _knew _if Jack had the chance, and the opportunity, he'd say those things to him. Probably.

So, furrowing his brows, tightening his grip on the jar of Red Sap he'd been given, the blond reared his arm back as he readied himself to deliver sweet sweet "justice" to the Faunus who tormented him just as frequently as Cardin. However, before the blond could chuck the jar of Red Sap at Jack's head and sate the feelings of vengeance he felt towards the Faunus who continued to berate and ridicule him with his every waking action, his Scroll began to ring in his pocket. Setting down the jar and looking into his Scroll, he saw a recorded message awaiting him, Jack's mugshot waiting for him.

"Don't. Fuck. Me. **Ever.**"

"Cardin… I'm pretty sure he's onto us," Jaune said as though he were actually _part _of that plot, forgetting that for a few seconds there, he was perfectly alright with racial discrimination of that nature.

"Ugh, fine, _I'll _do it. I've got something _special _for you to do later," Cardin said cryptically as he snatched the jar from Jaune's hand. Drawing his arm back and raising his leg like a baseball pitcher, arm alight with his orange Aura, the muscular teen sent the jar screaming through the air toward the Faunus' head.

"Hey look, a penny," Jack said suddenly leaning forward, the jar sailing harmlessly through where his head once was before the Faunus returned to a standing position, a small copper-colored coin in his hand. Said jar bounced on the ground before rolling around the tree Jack was standing in front of, coming to a rest at his feet. "Sweet. Red Sap," Jack said with a smile as he popped the lid in two places with a claw before chugging down.

" . . . Jack's drinking it-"

"I can see that," Cardin grumbled as he hefted Jaune by the waist band of his pants and walked to another part of the ridge. "Now tell me. What do you see?"

"Pyrrha…?" Jaune asked as he stared at his teammate, who was a few meters away from the rest of the group so they didn't over-tap the same plot of land. "Cardin, wh-what are you-?"

"_That's _the girl. Red-haired know-it-all, thinks she's _sooo _smart. We're going to _fix _that," Cardin said pulling out a buzzing cardboard box with a large **W **sloppily scribbled onto the side. "Last night, old Jaune here managed to round up an entire box of Rapier Wasps. And _now_, we're going to put them to work," he said as Russel grabbed the blond's shoulder, Jaune barely laughing in nervousness. "Now, according to one of the essays you wrote for me last week, these nasty things _looooove _sweets. I'm thinking it's time we… _remind _Pyrrha of that little fact."

"You're-you're going to hit her with Red Sap and sic those… _things _on her?" Jaune gulped, remembering all the anti-inflammatory cream he burned through just trying to _collect _the damn things.

"No, nononono, Jauney-boy. _I'm _not going to hit her with this," Cardin said holding up aforementioned jar.

"Oh good, because for a second I thought-"

"_You're _going to do it."

"…Wha-?"

"And if you don't, I'll have a chat with Goodwitch, and you can swap out that hoodie of yours for an orange jumpsuit," Cardin said forcing the jar into the blond's hands. "…Well? I'm waiting."

Even though the jar of Red Sap only weighed a few pounds, to Jaune, it felt like he was holding a lead weight. Looking down the hill to Pyrrha, a satisfied smile on her face as she took a taste from the stream of Red Sap, he thought back to all the times she tried to help him, only for him to be so self-absorbed in his own shit that he brushed her off. If she truly _did _overhear his talk with Jack from a window or a door, he could only imagine how betrayed she must've felt then. After that, Jack's smugly smiling face appeared in place of his own reflection in the Red Sap, mocking him as he punched holes in his argument with completely unfalsified logic.

Jaune looked back down to the bottom of the hill, Pyrrha capping her jar of sap before setting it aside and taking another for her own use. He thought about everything that Jack, and Cardin had said to him over the last week, and what it would mean for him if his secret got out. Looking to the left, he hoped that maybe Jack would move into save Pyrrha and bail him out, only to see the Faunus lazily napping into the side of the paralyzed Saber Rabbit, using it like a giant pillow with Ruby tucked under his arm and lightly snoozing away with her hood over her eyes.

It was at this moment that Jaune realized he was at a crossroads. He could either hit his unsuspecting partner with the Red Sap and let Cardin sic the box-full of Rapier Wasps on her, gravely injuring her before the others could help, or he could _not_, watch as _Cardin _hit Pyrrha with the Red Sap, and then reported his sorry pale butt to Goodwitch and make good on his promise. Either way, the only person he could count on was himself, and regardless of what he did, he was utterly screwed. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

Closing his eyes, Jaune clenched his buttocks as he finally steeled himself for what it was he had to do.

"…No."

"What did you say?" Cardin asked.

"I said…" Jaune growled as he angrily gripped the jar. "**NO!**"

_***Crash***_

Jaune gulped after having thrown the jar of Red Sap at his tormentor, his breastplate covered in bright red sap. The majority of the opposing team was struck speechless, but Cardin… Cardin began laughing darkly.

"Oh, you've done it now…"

Jaune humorously laughed once more, hands raised in an attempt for defense as Dove and Sky each grabbed a shoulder, hauling him off his feet and dragging him into the forest.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hey Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know why Jaune's hanging out with Cardin?" Ruby asked looking up at her brother-figure. The guy tucked her in at night, told her stories, and helped her out with her homework. If that wasn't the actions of an older brother, she didn't know what was. He even hurt himself doing stupid stuff like _Yang _did. Blood or no, the guy was practically family. If he didn't have anywhere to go next vacation break, she could probably convince her dad to let him use the guest room.

"Maybe. Maybe not," the Faunus shrugged.

"…Can you tell me?"

"It's one of those stupid macho _guy _things… It'd be bad form to tell you about it unless _he _wants to talk to you about it."

"Oh… I see," Ruby hummed. "Do you think he'll be okay? He looked really _miserable _when Cardin dragged him off."

"That's all on him," Jack shrugged. "Do. Or do not. There_ is_ no try."

"Huh… That was really deep. Where'd you hear it?"

"A little green-skinned ghost-man told it to me when I chewed on some _really _weird roots in the middle of a swamp after my rental aircar crashed. Last time I use _that _rental service, I'll tell you that much."

" . . . Huh," she said as she processed the absurdity of that story.

"Yeah."

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Hey Jack?"

"What is it now?"

"Something's poking my leg," Ruby said shifting uncomfortably.

"Oh, sorry. Let me fix that," Jack said pulling his waistline and reaching into his pants, much to Weiss' abject shock as she came back at _that _exact moment.

_***Clunk***_

"…Is that a blunt pipe?" the team leader asked looking at the lead pipe now laying across the ground, a small elbow-pipe screwed onto the end.

"Nothing wrong with a guy kicking ass _and _recycling."

"Is that _blood _on the end of it?"

"This forest has some _really _aggressive squirrels."

"Oh," Ruby said as though that answered everything. For the single-minded girl whose first thought in the face of anything new and unusual was "Let's kill it.", that one sentence probably _did_.

"How did you even _fit _that in there?!" Weiss gawped at the three-foot blunt instrument.

"_Really _deep pockets," the Faunus answered. "That and ancient packing techniques that survived the passage of time."

"Huh…" Blake hummed as she came into the conversation. Her curiosity had been _piqued _when Ruby said something was "poking" her leg, a Flag if she'd ever read one in bro-con or sis-con stories, but knowing it was Jack, it probably wasn't that cut-and-dry. It was not.

"Cool pipe. What _else _you hiding in there~"

"Yang, gross!"

"Someone kill me now."

"I'll get to you in a minute. I'm almost done with this chapter."

'_Oddly enough, this isn't even _close _to the weirdest conversation I've ever been part of.'_

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, Jaune had just gotten the stuffing kicked out of him by Cardin, the rest of Team CRDL sitting by and watching.

"You _know _that wasn't very smart, Jauney boy," the red-head said picking him up. "I'm gonna make sure they send you to butt-pounding lockdown in teeny tiny _pieces_."

"I don't care… _what _you do to me…" the blond said leveling a glare at Cardin. "But you are **not **messing with my team."

"What? You think talk like that makes you so tough? You think you're a big strong _man _now?" Cardin growled, the blond cracking a grin in defiance. Of course it may've also had to do with how a pair of maple leaves had stuck to the red-head's breastplate over his nipples, making him look really fucking stupid. Thank you, mother nature.

Those thoughts were interrupted as Cardin raised his fist again. However, right as it connected, a radiant light briefly shone through the clearing, no one beyond their little group noticing as Cardin yelped. Dropping the blond, he held onto his hand which was now throbbing, whereas Jaune was now completely healed, looking confusedly at his hands which pulsed with a white light. Before he could contemplate if that was maybe his Semblance, Sky kicked him in the back, forcing him onto his stomach.

"Let's see how much of a man you _really _are after some big sweaty guy makes you his _prison bitch_," the red-head glowered at the blond, a low growl causing all of them to jump. Looking over their shoulders, they saw a huge Ursa with dozens of jagged bone-spines jutting out its back lumbering out of the forest towards them. Stopping a few feet from them, it rose up onto its hind legs before sniffing the air, its flame-red eyes settling solely onto Cardin's honey-soaked breastplate.

Suffice it to say, Cardin's team heroically… ran away with their tails between their legs.

"**That isn't the **_**only **_**thing between their legs."**

**I get it. They also peed themselves. And now it's running down their legs.**

"**That was actually going to be a small-penis joke, but **_**that **_**too."**

Cardin standing his ground when all else fled, the giant Ursa easily slapped him aside with its paw. Jaune trembled as the Grimm sniffed at him, but it promptly ignored him in favor of the teen who smelled of Red Sap. The teen getting up and raising his mace, the monster swatted it away, leaving it at Jaune's feet, the blond conflicted whether to fight, run away… or as a darker part of him suggested, let the only person willing to _torment _him over his secret get eaten, lie about fighting tooth and nail to save Cardin's life, and make himself out to be some sort of hero.

Decisions, decisions.

What? Paragons can do Renegade shit _too_.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, again, the bestial roar perked up the heads of Teams RWBBY and JNPR, who were almost finished collecting their required and auxiliary food. Ren even collected some forest mushrooms and herbs for later.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"I could _taste _that," Jack said in response to Ruby's question. "Though then again, that might've been the Red Hair Boar jerky instead," he said holding up a dried strip of meat, which Nora snatched out of his hand with her teeth like some kind of dolphin.

"Ursa! Ursa!" Russel cried as he ran through the group, bumping into Yang who hoisted him off his feet with a loud- "_What_?!" "Back there… It's got Cardin!"

"Jaune!" Pyrrha gasped, dropping her sap had Nora not slid to the ground and caught it.

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby said brandishing her scythe.

"You two, go with them! There could be more!" Pyrrha ordered at Ren and Nora, leaving herself, Ruby, Weiss, and Jack running towards the sound of the roar.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap…" Cardin yelped as he tried to run away, only for the massive beast to hop over and in front of him before swatting him back into the center of the clearing.

"Oh no!" Pyrrha gasped… for whatever reason. Watching as the Ursa loomed over its helpless victim, it raised a massive paw into the air before swiping down, only for a loud _***CLUNK* **_to sound out as it met resistance in the form of Jaune's shield, the blond's muscles burning and aching as he struggled to remain standing. "Wait!" Pyrrha said right as Weiss drew her Myrtenaster.

Jaune deflected the paw away from himself and slashed at the Ursa's stomach, causing it to lash out and try to crush him with a falling paw drop, only for the blond to roll out of the way. Jumping over its next swipe at his feet, but unprepared for the mid-air strike, the blond rolled to the ground, but was quickly able to right himself and get back in the fight, passing by Cardin as he headed right into the bear's jaws. Jaune tried for a leaping attack, only for the Grimm to swipe at him in mid-air, sending him tumbling over the creature's shoulder. Looking down into his Scroll, which was mounted inside his shield, Jaune saw his Aura now in the red growling angrily as he once more ran at the Ursa.

The two moments away from clashing, Pyrrha saw that Jaune had left himself completely open to the Grimm's attack which was going to hit first. Lifting her hand out towards him, a black aura enveloped her arm, a like-aura appearing around Jaune's shield and lifting it up to block the swipe. The Ursa's claw scraping against his shield with a loud _***SHREEEEEEEIK***_, Jaune leaned toward the ground as he pushed the shield back up, getting right inside the Ursa's guard and bringing his blade through its neck.

"Uhhh… What?" Ruby asked as Pyrrha's hand stopped glowing.

"How did you…?" Weiss asked as the Ursa's head bounced across the ground.

"Semblance," Jack cut off the heiress, answering her question. Off to the side, Jaune had pulled Cardin to his feet, and by the looks of things, finally decided to stand up for himself. The look of understanding on Cardin's face probably meant he'd leave the blond alone, since he saved his life and all.

"Oh," Weiss replied, quickly realizing that Pyrrha's Semblance allowed her to control magnetic fields. It _did _seem awfully weird that she could _push _herself away from his axe swings when they fought, now that she thought about it. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened!" Ruby said as Pyrrha began to leave.

"We could… Or perhaps, we could keep it our little secret?" the red-head asked with a smile, feeling like everything had been wrapped up with a nice red bow.

"Hate to break up the Saturday morning cartoon end-of-episode love-fest, but Papa Bear had friends," Jack said poignantly as the bushes at the end of the clearing rustled, the unmistakable crimson eyes of Grimm glaring out at them through the darkness.

Moments later the bushes parted, around a dozen smaller Ursa waddled into the clearing, growling angrily as they looked at the slowly-evaporating corpse of their decapitated comrade. Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha readied their weapons to deal with the small fry, only to pale as a pair of Ursa like Jaune had just killed appeared as well, the odds further stacked against them.

"I'm sorry guys… I'm completely spent…" Jaune sighed as he tried to lift his sword from the ground, only for his arm to feel like granite.

"Don't worry, Jaune. You sit back and rest," Ruby said reassuring the blond. "We've got this."

"All we have to do is wait until Professor Goodwitch arrives," Weiss added. Knowing a teacher was on the way, filled her with confidence in the face of the many foes before them.

"After all, it's not like anything _else _can come out of those woods, right?" Pyrrha asked with a smile.

_***ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR* **_

"Dammit, Pyrrha! You jinxed us! You fucking _jinxed _us!" Jack raged angrily at Pyrrha's poor choice of words that tempted fate itself.

Birds leaving their roosts in the distance, the unmistakable sound and sight of felling trees echoed their way, a massive black shape making its way towards them, massive crimson eyes glaring at them from beyond the darkness. The unmistakable contours of an Ursa-breed Grimm making itself known to them, the three Huntresses-in-training steeled themselves even further for battle as the shape got larger. And larger… And _larger_… And LARGER!

Moments later, the trees across from them were violently wrenched from the ground as a massive shape punched a hole through Forever Fall and ripped it a new one. Seeing it in the light, and the trail of ruin left in its wake, at first the three girls thought it was a much _fatter _Ursa, one that had finished eating the population of a small Frontier town, as much as the thought upset them.

Any misconceptions about it merely being _fat _were quickly thwarted as the Grimm reared up on its hind legs. A massive shadow looming over them as it rose to full height, slowly, ever so slowly, their eyes widened inside their skulls and their jaws fell impossibly low as the Grimm rose to full height after several seconds, completely _dwarfing _over the surrounding trees as it let out a loud bellow that shook the ground.

If the Ursa that Yang punched in the Emerald Forest were eight feet tall, and the one that Jaune had just killed was around twelve in height, then the one that had appeared _now _was… It was really, fucking, _big_! Larger than most buildings, the top of its head eclipsed the sun at its back, the crimson lines across its mask glowed a baleful red through the shadows, giving it an even more terrifying visage than before. This breed of Ursa was so large, it made the smaller ones that Yang punched look like _literal _chew toys.

Like all others, this Ursa had midnight black fur, and had the same general shape as them, only it was _way _larger. Its claws were so big they could pluck soccer vans off the road like cubes of cheese on a platter. The thick plates of bony armor on the tops of its arms, the sides of its legs, and around the shoulders and knees looked like they rivaled that of a Deathstalker. Wrapped around its chest was a set of eight wide rib-like bones protecting its vitals, and the entirety of its head was encased in a thick bony mask, the armor on the outside of its jaw giving it large teeth that jutted upward. The spines jutting out of its back looked like a forest of petrified trees, and at the base of them there were clumps of grass and even some flowers.

Later surveys into the Forever Fall forest would discover that one of the large hills in the distance was now missing, a large crater in its place as though the entire thing had just gotten up and walked away.

Oh wait…

"Oh…"

"My…"

"God…" Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha gawped in succession as the massive Grimm seemed to _chuckle _at them from on high, the smaller Grimm following suit.

"Holy crap! That thing's even bigger than the one _I _killed!" Jaune gawped, Jack rolling his eyes.

"Of course that thing's bigger. The one you killed was only an Ursa _Minor_. That thing's an Ursa _Major_."

"Bu-Wha- I thought _that _was a major!" Jaune yelped as he pointed at the decapitated corpse evaporating at his feet.

"Nope! Common mistake!" Jack said as he mercilessly popped Jaune's bubble with a hail of automatic gunfire. "The _small_ ones are Ursa, the medium-sized like the one you killed are Ursa _Minor_, and the papa-bear you see before you is an Ursa Major, which looks _really _fucking old. If you'd gone up against a _Major_, you'd be dead in a heartbeat. One-hundred percent guaranteed," Jack deadpanned as he gestured to the massive Grimm towering over them. _Literally _towering over them, like something straight out of Shadow of the Colossus.

"You don't have to sound so _sure _of yourself," Jaune whined as he backed away in fear. That thing was even larger than the Giant Nevermore and Deathstalker from initiation put together. The blond didn't even _think _Grimm could get that big. He'd thought Port was _joking_!

"Alright, alright," Jack said waving his hands down. "I'm ninety-_nine_ percent sure you'd be dead in a heartbeat."

"Gee, _thanks_," Jaune deadpanned.

"What do we do? I don't have _nearly _enough ammo for a Grimm _that _big, let alone _all _of them!" Ruby squawked as she _literally _stood in the Ursa Major's shadow.

"Professor Port told us _stories _about Grimm that big… but I thought he was just blowing smoke out his ass," Yang gulped as the horde of Grimm slowly approached them.

"The little ones we could all handle, but the _big _one… this is too much. We need to fall back, get help from Beacon," Weiss reasoned only for Jack to grab her by her ribbon.

"Running's exactly what that thing wants us to do. We start running, and that thing'll just hunt us down like some kind of game. And I doubt I'll go back to sleep until it's satisfied with the nearest livable settelement."

"Then what do we do?" Jaune asked nervously. He just _barely _beat that Ursa Maj-Minor, and that took everything he _had_. No _way _he could stand up to something that big, even if they _did _manage to fight their way through the small fry.

"The moment I move forward and draw its attention, the rest of you fall back."

"What?! No! You're injured!" Weiss said grabbing his wrist.

"Don't worry, princess. I've fought stronger than this. I almost _died_ back then… but that's beside the point."

"I won't let you go out there! Not without help!" the white-haired girl asserted as she held the back of his hand to her chest.

"Yeah! All for one and one for all!" Yang asserted.

"Did you pack spare ammo for the field trip?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, of course I… _shit_…" Yang bit out realizing her ammo belts weren't there. "I didn't think I needed them, so I left them back in our room."

"Then you need to hold onto your ammo and cover the retreat," Jack said pushing the blond back.

"You sure one of your pick-me-ups wouldn't help?" the heiress asked, the gears in Jack's head turning before a lightbulb went off above his head.

"Weiss!" Jack said putting his hands on Weiss' shoulders and looking her in the eye. "I need you-" _*Gasp* _"-to give me some Dust!"

"O-Oh!" Weiss returned, flushing bright red, thinking he'd meant… something else. "Well, I've got several types," she said holding out her pouch and opening it. "What do you nee-" she said before Jack reached in and snagged a vial of Red Dust, some of her most-potent stash. The more-refined a sample she used, the more mileage she could get out of each granule.

"Thanks for this. I'll pay you back later."

Without really thinking about it, the Faunus planted a kiss on the heiress' cheek, the girl flushing as red as Pyrrha's hair as the Faunus turned around and slowly walked forward. Off to the side, Pyrrha's hands went to her face as she thought about the scandalous nature of whatever dirty images suddenly came to mind. Yang's jaw dropped, Ruby had no idea what was going on, while Jaune's thinking ability was completely destroyed as the heiress' hands went to her flushed cheeks and she let out a demure, and uncharacteristic- "G-G-Good luck." –to the Faunus as he pulled the cork from the vial with his teeth.

"Alright, tough guy…" Jack said as he peeled away the bandages from his left hand with his teeth, before pouring the contents of Weiss' vial on to it. "Who wants some," he said clenching the Dust in his hand with a knuckle-whitening grip. As though he were holding an extremely valuable locket, given to him by his lover's grandma's ex-husband's mother who made it and died protecting it from bandits.

**Cue One Punch Man OST – Genos Fight Theme (BETA)**

A thin crimson aura glowing around his hand, as Jack inhaled and tightened his grip, that same aura suddenly shifted to a bright shade of orange. That same orange outline slowly traced its way up his arm, wrapping around his torso before spreading to the rest of his limbs, before tracing its way down every stand of its hair giving it a bright fluorescent glow. His hands suddenly snapping open, gouts of flame spewed out of his palms and his bandages were lit aflame, the medical wrappings blackening and falling away from his arms, which had now become a galvanized shade of black. Steam beginning to rise from his body, the grass at his feet browning and flaking away in the wind, jagged veins of fire coursed their way from inside his jumpsuit before racing down his arms. Galvanized skin cracking and giving way, his palms were now alight with white-hot pits of fire, tongues of flame curling along his fingers as the Faunus flexed his muscles and fingers.

"_Whoa…"_ Ruby gawped as Jack made a "come at be, bro" motion with his fingers. _"Is this his Semblance too?"_

"_No…" _Weiss breathed out. _"Well, _yes_. Technically. Kind of. But also no."_

"_Speak English already! Nobody here knows fucking German!" _Yang growled out.

"_I think we're about to see first-hand," _Pyrrha said as she pointed back to the fight.

"I'm all fired up!" Jack shouted.

A loud _***BREEEEEN* **_piercing the air, the centers of Jack's palms glowed even brighter before he was suddenly shot forward, coronas of flame propelling him like a rocket towards the dozen Ursa that lumbered towards him. The Faunus approaching at break-neck speed, the rocket-propelled spin-kick that followed _literally _broke one's neck as the blow connected, white-hot lances of fire leaping from his hands and cauterizing fist-sized holes through the chests of the next two Ursa that tried getting close. Slamming his palms into the ground, the forest floor at his feet darkened before bursting into flames like magma, arcs of lightning dancing off his hands as he slowly rose from the ground.

A deafening _***BOOM* **_ringing out as he screamed upward into the air, the Faunus cut the flow of Aura to the flames spewing out his arms after soaring more than a hundred feet into the air. Gravity slowly taking over, the Faunus's back faced the ground before he began falling in a nose-dive, flames once more belching out of his palms as he careened towards the ground like a rocket, comets of ash and flame trailing behind him before he struck the ground, the forest shaking from the earth-shattering force as though a bomb had gone off, rock, fire, and ash alike scattering the nearby Ursa in all directions, a few of them completely immolated, while others shakily got to their feet, the three that had managed to avoid the blast entirely running at him from behind.

Looking lazily over his shoulder, the whites of his eyes now pitch black while his irises glowed and iridescent gold, the Faunus spun on his heel before planting his feet on the ground and facing his would-be attackers. Throwing his head back, he _visibly _drew in the nearby air into his gullet, his chest expanding to an impossible size. The Grimm a few meters away, Jack threw his head forward, cheeks puffed out before he puckered his lips and shouted out- **"Flame Arte: Scarlet Grudge!"**

The gout of flame that spewed past his lips started out in a small stream, until it greedily drank the oxygen before it and turned into a raging inferno. The cone of destruction washing completely over the three Ursa like a raging flood, the torrent of fire screamed until it hit the treeline, everything in its wake blackened and turned to ash, only a few embers dancing around. In the wake of the attack, three charred-black skeletons frozen mid-charge were all the remained in the wake of Jack's cone of destruction, small cracking sounds echoing out before they crumbled under their own weight into piles of ash.

A single empty skull left intact, void sockets looking up at him, Jack crushed it into powder with his foot, three more Ursa, half their fur burned off and their bone masks partly melted away, stumbled towards him as fast as they could. The now black-eyed Faunus clicked his tongue before throwing out his hands, white-hot daggers of flame leaping out between his knuckles as he ran forward, the grass and leaves under his feet becoming alight, ash and embers dancing around him as Jack leapt over the first swing, a cross-slash severing the first Ursa's arm and cauterizing the wound. Leaping onto its back and stabbing his flame-daggers into its back, he made the Ursa swing its limbs about, lashing out at the other Ursa who got near. Ripping the flame daggers free, Jack then stabbed them into its ears, its face reddening before flames belched out of its mouth and its eyes, the Creature of Grimm dropping dead moments later.

The Faunus lazily brushing some dust from his shoulder as the tenth Ursa evaporated, he heard the last two growling, leveling a blank stare their way. Blackened eyes of gold staring into the fire-eyed eyes of the Grimm, the two were smart enough to realize they'd been beaten, and decided to run away, if only to fight another day. However, before they could retreat, a wall of flame lanced its way across the ground and barred their path, another doing the same on their right. The source, were Jack's hands which were down on the ground, a wicked smile pulling at his features as he strolled towards them, no avenue of escape left other than through him.

From the outside, the fight's impromptu spectators could only watch from behind the bushes as shadows danced within the wall of flames. It was almost like watching a puppet show… if the puppet show was on fire… and two of the cast were being tortured to death. By the time the flames died down, there were only two limbless lumps of flesh left, moaning pitiably as Jack ground his foot into their heads, a wicked grin plastered across his face as he piled on the pressure, a crack forming in one's mask, the soulless creature utterly powerless to stop it. The other Grimm trying to worm its way over and bite at his ankles, the Faunus lazily conjured a ball of flame in his hand before opening its mouth with the other, pinning its jaw to the ground with his foot.

"I've never said this, but don't swallow," the Faunus said as he lobbed the ball into its mouth, before proceeding to sit down atop its head, locking its jaw shut as he lazily picked at his nails. The Ursa uselessly struggled against its tormentor, the heat inside its head beginning to radiate until a sloppy ring of fire burned its way through its neck. The other Grimm growling angrily at the flame-armed Faunus, he grinned maliciously as he raised his foot, wreathing it in flame before stomping the Grimm's head flat with a loud _***THUD* **_that shook the ground. "And then there were three," he said turning to the two Minor and one Major, the prior growling angrily while the latter seemed nonplussed by the carnage. "What, you don't wanna go?" he asked patting his chest at them. "Okay then. _I'll _go first," he said with a manic grin as he drew both arms back.

A loud **_*BREEEEEEN* _**sounding from his palms, the two Ursa Minors began to run forward, independently of the Major which continued to watch. Shooting himself toward the Minor on the left, which raised its paws to slap him down, at the last possible second Jack shot himself between its paws and over its dumbstruck expression. Throwing his arms forward, he turned the powerful jets of flame upon its exposed back, white hot flames and bone shards spraying into the air off its back, the Minor roaring as it was slowly cooked. A manic look on Jack's face as he brought the first Minor to its knees and cooked it alive with a continuous stream of fire, the second rushed at him from the side. Golden eyes snapping to the left, he leaped away from the second before slamming his palms onto the ground, a red-hot line of fire zig-zagging its way across the ground before a geyser of fire exploded from the ground, charring all the fur off the second Minor before lifting it off its feet and throwing it into the air, flesh aflame.

The second Minor juggled within a flaming geyser like a beach ball over a water jet, the first managed to get back to its feet, backhanding Jack off his feet and sparing the second from death by immolation. Rolling to his feet, Jack coughed up blood before wiping it away from the corner of his lips, a cocky grin on his face as the second Minor shakily got to its feet, moaning and groaning as it found half its flesh cooked away and its bone spikes blackened. Visibly mustering its strength amidst the waves of pain racking its body, Jack drew his right hand back, conjuring a white-hot ball of flame in his hand as he raised his left leg perpendicular to the ground. The Minor roaring with all its strength, refusing to die quietly, Jack brought his left leg down in a flaming arc and pitched that son of a bitch as hard as he could, the white-hot fastball screaming through the air and into the Ursa's open mouth mid-roar. The light from its maw radiating brightly, its head was blown clean off its shoulders moments later, shards of bone and viscera splattered all over its compatriot, who had a seemingly horrified expression on its face.

"Aaand _you're _outta there!" Jack cackled like a deranged umpire. "Now as for _you_… How 'bout we play some _dodge ball_?!" he asked/cackled as he raised both hands, larger balls of flame conjured in his open hands. The first Minor, most of its bone spikes either blown off or melted away along with the flesh on its back, took a step back in terror. "Rush the new guy!" Jack cackled as he chucked the first dodge ball-sized orb of flame forward, the ball of fire impacting its shoulder and splashing fire over its body. A second orb of fire followed the first, then a third, before a veritable deluge of flaming dodge balls flew through the air at it under a constant barrage, fur, flesh, and bone cooking in large chunks until the Grimm went up in a column of black miasma like the first, two smoldering corpses left in the middle of a charred battleground, which now smelled of smoke and burning hair. "And then there was one," Jack smirked cockily at the remaining Grimm, an angry growl on its face as it lowered itself onto its fore paws, shaking the leaves in the trees at its footfalls. "Come at me bro!" Jack cackled as he pat his chest, taunting it.

_***GRAAAAAAAWR***_

"All your attention on little old me? I'm sooo _FLATTERED_!" Jack yelled, the ground exploding into flames behind him before he ran at his opponent, the Ursa Major thundering across the burned wasteland towards him. A single paw raised up mid-run, a horizontal swipe that could fell a building flew Jack's way, a burst of flame sending the Faunus leaping over it. Running up along the armored foreleg, the Major stood on its hind legs, taking Jack high into the air with him, left paw raised to swat him down. Twisting in mid-air with gouts of flame burning, the Faunus corkscrewed between massive claws that slammed on bony armor with a deafening **_*CRACK* _**that shook the air. Landing atop the Ursa's nose, Jack drew his arms back, white-hot balls of fire in his hands lighting up like miniature suns. **"SOLAR FLARE!" **he shouted as he brought his palms together, the two balls of white-hot flame exploding into a massive corona of light that all around it had to block their eyes from. A few seconds later and the light faded, but what Jack had waiting for him, he was not expecting.

What he _expected_, was for the Grimm to be a flailing, screaming mess right about now. He _expected _it to be blinded from the point-blank flash of light, and if nothing else, have the fluid in its eyeballs brought to a boil. However _instead_, lowered over its eyes from its helm like some kind of ancient reptile, the Grimm's eyes were now covered in bony plates completely hiding its eyes from view.

"Armored eyelids? Seriously?! What the fuUUUUUUCK!" he yelped as the Ursa flipped its snout upward. The Faunus sent tumbling through the air, at the apex of his flight the Ursa had leaped up, maw wide open before comping down on him with a loud **_*CRUNCH*_**, the Faunus disappearing from view as the Grimm landed from its jump with a powerful _***THUD* **_that shook the ground

"Holy shit! We have to do something?!" Yang squawked as she watched her teammate get eaten.

"Like what? We might as well be shooting _spitballs _at it!" Jaune cried as he waved his arms at its massive girth.

"Well we have to do _something_! We can't just _leave _him there!" Weiss shrieked.

"I think Jack has this covered," Pyrrha said pointing at the Grimm. Its mouth was clamped shut, it blinked rapidly. Shaking its head, _tears _of all things began to leak out of its eyes, followed by wisps of smoke trickling out the corners its mouth. Its face reddening, its maw suddenly opened, a plume of flame gushing out of its mouth like an old cartoon where the character ate something spicy. And screaming out the top, whooping like a madman, was Jack sailing through the air with pillars of fire gushing out of his hands.

"YA THOUGHT YA COULD EAT ME, YA FAT BASTARD!?" Jack growled. "WELL I GOT A NEWS FLASH FOR YA!" he said making a rapid series of arm movements in front of himself, his arms crossing around his body too fast to see. "HONEY BADGER! AIN'T ON! THE MENU!" he shouted as he brought his hands forward, his thumbs and index fingers forming a diamond shape. **"Flame Arte: Burning Attack!" **he shouted as he fired a bright yellow sun-like projectile was fired from his hands. The Grimm tilting its body to the side a the last second, the attack exploded in mid-air and blew off its right ear, cauterizing the wound and causing the Grimm to roar out in pain from the high-pitched whine filling its head. "I ain't done with you _yet_!" he said as he dove at its back. The veins on his arms glowing white-hot, he sent out a flurry of blows, bone spikes shattering and giving way under the machinegun-speed blows, bone fragments sent in all directions and causing the Ursa to recoil. Jack landed on the ground with a **_*THUD*_**, the pits of fire in his hand whining before he whirled around and launched a red-hot column of fire right into its asshole, the Grimm's eyes widening impossibly large as it ran around, forepaws struggling to put out the fire on its ass before it began dragging its but along the floor like a dog with tapeworms. After a few minutes of the _last _thing the fight's spectators thought they'd ever see a Grimm do, it growled angrily and rounded on its attacker, the Faunus now standing at the other end of the field in the middle of a ring of fire on the ground, right arm drawn back with fingers opened.

"Let's see how you like _this _one!" Jack growled as tongues of flame began to snake their way from the ring on the ground, coiling and weaving above his head until they attained the shape of a massive ten-foot broadsword, dragon-like wings furled down the middle of the blade. **"Flame Arte: Flame Lance!" **he shouted as he threw his arm forward, the flaming broadsword screaming through the air like a lance toward the Grimm's heart. Raising its paw, the Grimm swatted the attack out of the air, an eye quirked seeing the flame lance had actually stabbed through the armor on its paw. The implement radiating brightly, with a loud **_*FWOOOOOM* _**the flame-borne sword detonated in a fiery explosion, the smell of charred flesh filling the air and plates of bony armor were scatted. "Yeah…" Jack whooped before he began coughing blood, steam rising out of his mouth as he wiped the blood away. "That all you got!?"

_***GRAAAAAAAWR***_

"Guess not…" Jack broke out into a fit of coughing, blood staining his fingertips before he looked up at the Grimm. _'I've only got a third left__… better make this count__…' _Jack thought to himself as he drew his right arm back. His hand tightening in a knuckle-whitening grip, the black galvanized armor over his bare arms began to flake away, the white-hot veins across his body beginning to fade as the last of his Aura was concentrated into a single point within his right hand. The Grimm ignoring the pain from its first fight in decades, rushed at the Faunus, the heat radiating off his body soon surpassing that of a burning crucible, a brilliantly-glowing plume of flame dominating his right hand. **"MYSTIC ARTE!" **Jack shouted as his emotions reached fever pitch, his presence washing over everyone around him causing the visage of his crimson eyes to appear before their own like a banner. **"REEEEEED****…" **he bellowed as he ran forward, dodging the paw swipes and snapping jaws of his adversary. **"HAAAAAAAWK!" **he roared as he threw his right arm forward with all his might, the Grimm grunting at the loud **_*WHAM* _**that shook the air. For a moment the forest was quiet, until suddenly a brilliant plume of red fire exploded out the Major's back with a loud **_*FWOOOOOOOOM*_**, blood and spittle flying out its mouth in a soundless bellow as the trees behind it exploded into flame.

**END OST**

The Grimm beginning to topple backwards, Jack kicked off his opponent, backpedaling as quickly as possible. The massive Grimm striking the ground with a devastating **_*THUD-UD-UD-UD-UD* _**that made the forest shake, the countless bone spikes on its back turned the burning trees into so much timber, smoke rising from under its body. The Faunus coming to a stop before his friends, he hid another fit of blood-coughing behind his hand, the last of the galvanized ashen armor falling from between his fingertips.

"That… was… _awesome_!" Ruby squealed as she looked at the carnage Jack's _literal _show of firepower had wrought.

"Hoooooly fucking _shit_…!" Yang gawped as she took in the destruction all around. There were scorched craters in the ground, molten dirt, trees that were aflame slowly petering out, and cones of destruction in every direction. "That was _HOT_!"

"That was _not _awesome," Ruby pouted.

"Aw c'mon, that was a _good _one!" the sister argued.

"That was… _incredible_," Weiss breathed out in awe.

"That was… definitely _something_," Pyrrha nodded.

"That was… I mean… There are no _words_…" Jaune gawped.

"C'mon guys, don't drag your feet. Let's get out of here and go the fuck home," Jack huffed as he walked up to them, irritatingly scratching his head like something was bothering the _hell _out of him.

"What's with your eyes?" Yang asked pointing to Jack's black sclera. The iridescent gold was new too, much more… malicious than his eyes' mid-tier color of golden amber.

"The eyes are the gateway to the soul," the Faunus said cryptically, an unfamiliar edge in his tone as he tapped his temple. "Got it memorized?"

" . . . Huh?"

"We should probably get going while the going's good," Weiss stated, now that the fighting was over.

"What're you worried about, Snow Angel?" Jaune asked, trying to sound manly as he tiredly threw an arm over her shoulder. "Everything out there's dead. D-E-A-D deaaaa…" he spelled out before a massive shadow loomed over them, everyone gawping to see that the Ursa Major had gotten back to its feet. Instead of being dead like everyone thought, a hole had merely been burned through its body, entrails falling and beginning to plug up the hole, its spine momentarily visible as the viscera began to settle around it.

"**MOVE!**" Jack shouted as the Ursa Major raised its arm over its head. "Go! Go! Go! Go! G-" he shouted as he shoved his dumbstruck peers into a running start right before its paw came down. The massive paw bodily striking him with a loud **_*KA-SHHHH* _**like breaking glass, the last traces of his Aura were completely exhausted, the blacks of his eyes turning white and the iridescent gold fading back to jade as he was sent screaming through the air past his friends. The loud **_*CRASH*CRASH*CRASH* _**of trees being violently felled echoed through the forest as the Faunus sailed past Glynda and the others, bodily crashing into three more before coming to a stop at the seventh with a deafening **_*CRUNCH* _**of bark. A pained gasp leaving his mouth, the Faunus slowly fell out of the tree before landing in a bleeding heap on the ground coughing up blood.

"Run for your liiiives!" Jaune screamed as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his feet carrying him past Glynda, Blake, Ren, and Nora, Weiss and Yang slowly rolling Jack onto his back.

"Jack! Jack can you hear me?" Weiss shouted as she opened his eye, the pupil dilating as it pointed towards her.

"Yeah… Why do you ask?" the Faunus asked as he rose into a sitting position, his bones protesting at the motion as he coughed up another glob of blood.

"Because we've gotta haul ass!" Yang said throwing an arm over her shoulder, Weiss doing the same as Ruby backpedaled towards them, Crescent Rose spitting out rounds at the approaching Grimm as Pyrrha added her own gunfire, one paw guarding the gaping hole in its stomach, the Grimm not even _noticing _the other gunshots that pelted its frame. Raising its other paw into the air, ready to crush them, Ruby flinched as the paw came down with a deafening _***THUD***_. However, when she realized she wasn't dead, she looked up to see a familiar spinning Glyph blocking its paw, the red-haired girl turning to Glynda who stood coolly in front of her students, adjusting her glasses with her free hand.

"Students, are you alright?" Glynda asked as she held the massive Grimm back.

"M-Mostly…" Yang croaked out nervously, having never been so glad to see Glynda in all her life.

"That's good. It'd be a shame not to be able to berate you for doing something so **FOOLISH**!" the blond shouted as she threw her riding crop out, sending the Ursa Major stumbling onto its ass with a deafening _***THUD***_.

"Professor, I think they've already left," Blake said coming up to the professor before turning tail and running herself, joining her teammates who were returning to the clearing for the safety that was their ride home.

"Good… At least now nobody will be in my way," Glynda said as she stared down the angry Grimm shakily getting back to its feet. "I wish I had more for backup than _Peach_. And I'm not sure I can take this thing on by myself without risk," she said leveling her riding crop at the massive Grimm in front of her. Even though she was a huntress and it was part of the job description, she was still afraid to die, but if it meant giving the others time to escape… that's a sacrifice the woman was willing to make.

**Cue Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 Soundtrack - Battle for Survival  
**

_***GRAAAAAAAWR***_

"Hmph," Glynda huffed as she fixed the hairs the Grimm's roar had disturbed from place. "It's rare that I get to cut loose like this," she said as she began to bend and twist her implement, her eyes sharpening until they became cold as ice. "I'll make you regret coming out of hibernation," she said coolly as she suddenly leaped into the air, soaring upward until she was eye-level with the Grimm, a purple Glyph appearing beneath her feet and acting as a platform. "Come along now. It isn't proper to keep a lady waiting," she said making a beckoning motion with her fingertips, a series of motions made in the air with her implement.

The Ursa Major growling at the Human woman's continued interference, it ran towards her in a lumbering gait, leaves falling from the trees with every step. A smirk pulling at the woman's lips, she swiped her riding crop in an upward slash across her body, a full-grown tree crashing against the right side of the Grimm's face a moment later with the force of a freight train, the Grimm toppling onto its side while the tree used had exploded into a shower of splinters. Shaking its head, the Grimm looked up to see an entire _line _of trees floating in mid-air like some kind of multi-sectioned staff, bound together with Glyphs like links on a chain. Another motion of her riding crop and Glynda's giant-sized weapon whirled through the air, each section of her bludgeon exploding into splinters as they slammed into the Grimm's armored body with each swipe, a cascade of splinters and leaves filling the air. Blinking debris out of its eyes, the Grimm stormed forward and slashed at eye-level, only to find nothing. Looking into the forest at its feet, a deep rumbling sound echoed from behind it, the Grimm looking over its shoulder.

A series of Glyphs arranged concentrically before her, a bead of sweat ran down Glynda's temple, she brought her riding crop up with a loud**_\- _**"HRAAGH!" -, a massive geyser of water suddenly spewed forth from the earth, another Glyph meeting the pillar of water halfway and redirecting it. The fountain of water slamming against the Grimm's face, it fumbled backwards as it blocked its eyes. However, a few moments later, it found that its movements had become sluggish even as the waterworks stopped. Looking down, it saw that the ground at its feet had now become saturated, and that it had begun to sink into the marshy ground. Struggling to pull itself free, it looked up in time to see a tree being driven into the gaping hole left behind roots-first, the beast letting out a blood-curdling bellow as the roots scraped at its insides. Falling forward but stopping itself with one paw, its other set of claws wrapped themselves around the tree jammed into its stomach, a deep bellowing spilling past its lips as it ripped the object free, blood and viscera spewing into the air anew.

Shaking the red from its eyes, the Grimm looked up to see the woman from before now running along a series of quickly-disappearing mid-air platforms, an array of horizontal Glyphs ten across and three high now facing it, the woman hopping higher before running the other way and adding a fourth row. Trudging its way through the muddy ground, it began storming its way towards her, the woman having completed a fifth row and back-flipped off her final platform, a loud **_*SNAP* _**from her fingers echoing through the forest air. At that very moment, a horizontal deluge of purple auric spheres began being belched from the wall of Glyphs before it, each one striking its body and exploding with the force of a small bomb. The bombardment forcing it back as purple smoke choked its senses, by the time the smoke abated, the woman had already woven another Glyph into the air, larger and more intricate than the last.

As Glynda finished weaving the runes into her Auric Construct, she saw that chunks of the Ursa Major's armor had been blown off, smoke beginning to rise out of its injuries. For any other Grimm this would mean death, but for larger Grimm like this, it merely meant that it was hurt, but it was still possible to recover. Not wanting to give it the chance to attack, or worse yet, run toward the students, the final rune in place, concentric rings within her runic circle began moving like tumblers in a lock, the runes rearranging themselves into several different radiating configurations before settling into one final form, a massive symbol depicting the sun consisting of three concentric rings with isosceles triangles in the four cardinal directions, a slightly smaller triangle arranged between each one completing the look of the sun-like symbol.

The massive sun-like rune beginning to spin at mind-boggling speeds, massive amounts of air were drawn into the center of the runic circle, a pinprick of light appearing within its center as the ambient Dust and energy within the atmosphere was drawn into a singular point. The air rumbling as what could only be described as a miniature sun was suddenly compacted together, beads of sweat began to roll down her temples before she finally shouted, with all her might- **"Mystic Arte: Terra Force!" **

Her presence washing over the Grimm and her fleeing students, the visage of her bright green eyes appeared before theirs like a banner. At the moment those words left her lips, the massive high-energy sphere of energy shot through the air, a cone of the forest immolating in its path as a massive yellow ball with a white-hot core half its size screamed towards the Ursa Major. Raising its paws, the Grimm attempted to crush it, only for the Arte to _literally_ explode in its face, a wave of heat rushing away from the pillar of fire, the light from that attack momentarily visible to all who looked northward in Vale.

**END OST**

Shielding her eyes from the wave of embers that washed over, when the dust settled, she let out a sigh of relief as she saw the Ursa Major laid out on its back, massive columns of black smoke rising off its form, signifying its eventual death. The woman dusting off her clothes, she made her way back to the clearing, a sigh of contentment leaving her lips as she left the battlefield.

What she didn't expect, was for the Grimm's eyes to snap open, the beast suddenly rolling over before lunging at her with speed that completely bellied its girth. The woman pinned down by one of its massive claws, the Ursa Major, half its face melted away by the heat of the blast leaving cooked muscle and most of its right eye visible, glared down at her with flame-colored eyes. Most of the flesh on the front of its body burned away, bands of muscle and bone were barely holding its insides within its body, the loud **_*LUB*DUB* _**of its still-beating heart ringing in her ears as it let out a rasping bellow on its death throes, its mouth falling open causing a black miasma to spill out of its maw, the black mist washing over her like a flood.

_'D__…Dammit__…' _Glynda cursed as she put a sleeve over her face, eyes squinting as darkness began to encroach on the sides of its vision. _'I got__… careless,' _she swore as everything turned dark, her body growing cold. _'I'm__… sorry__…' _she gasped out, breathing her last. _'I messed up___…_ everyone___… I guess_____… this is the end for me_________…_____' _

Resigning herself to her fate, body growing weaker by the second, her only regret, was that she wouldn't see the honest-souled Ruby graduate.

_'Goodbye_____…___' _she choked out, a tear falling from her eye as the Grimm continued to smother her.

**"SNAP OUT OF IT GOODWITCH! THE ONLY ONE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO LOSE TO IS _ME_! AND NOBODY ELSE!"**

**Cue Mega Man Zero 2 OST - Departure [Mythos Version]  
**

_"J…Jack…?"_ Glynda muttered out at the voice that pierced the darkness._ "What are you…?" _she wheezed out as the tide of miasma suddenly abated. Looking up, she saw the Faunus fisting what was left of the Grimm's left eyelid, a glint of yellow shining off his other wrist, the Grimm swinging its head to get him off and no longer focusing on her.

"Hey ugly! There's _blood _in your eye!" he said as he cocked his fist back, a single Dual-Ranged Shot Gauntlet transforming to full length across his arm before he began unloading it repeatedly into its eye, the Grimm roaring and throwing its head from side to side, the miasma from its mouth spewing in all directions but on her.

"HOLD ON GLYNDAAA!" Ruby shouted as she came up to her, grabbing the underside of the massive bone claw and struggling to life it up, Weiss, Blake, and Yang moments behind her and doing the same.

"What… What're you doing here…? I told you to run…" Glynda coughed out, her light no longer being snuffed out.

"We would've, but Jack clocked me upside the face and ran back here, said something didn't sit right with him," Yang said as she tried to lift the claw pinning her down. "Good thing we did. Barfed on to death by a big Grimm? Bad way to go."

"Daaayum big guy! I thought you were ugly _before_, but Glynda fucked your shit _good_!" Jack cackled as he continued to hang on, the Grimm's ocular organ now a soggy pile of flame-colored slop, black smoke spilling out all over him.

"Jack! Get out of there!" Glynda shouted. "Your Aura's gone! You'll-"

"I can't quit! I won't! You're coming back to teach us whether you want to or not! I don't care _how _much you hate grading papers!" Jack shouted as he continued firing, despite the miasma choking his lungs. "Ruby!" _*COUGH* _"Is she out of there yet?!"

"Not yet! This thing's really _strong_!" Ruby shouted as she strained against the load.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Jack growled as he suddenly jumped down and landed right behind Yang. Snaking his fingers through her hair, the Faunus jerked his arm back, much to the shock of the Team. A trio of golden hairs curled within his fingers, Yang's eyes flashed red and a corona of fire exploded around her, a blood-curdling yell spilling out of the blond's lips as she suddenly jerked the claw completely backwards, the Grimm bellowing and drowning out Yang's screaming. Ruby and Weiss grabbing Goodwitch by the arms, Blake taking her legs, Jack threw an angrily-flailing Yang over his right shoulder, the five of them running like their lives depended on it.

Turns out it did, because not even moments after they left the clearing, the Ursa Major burst through the trees and chased after them. A wall of black smoke rising from its body, combined with its half-immolated form, gave it an even _more _terrifying visage, looking like something out of a horror flic. Rolling waves of black miasma rolling towards them, Yang stopped seeing red long enough to cock her left Ember Celica back and sent a round screaming into its face, stunning it and buying them precious seconds.

"Ruby! Run ahead and tell the pilots we need to leave _now!_" Weiss shouted.

"Got it!" Ruby replied as she handed Glynda's other arm over to her teammate, disappearing in a storm of rose petals.

"Run… Run away… Save yourselves," Glynda choked out, her body still numb.

"Not on your life!" Jack shouted as he ran over to the desperately-running forms of Blake and Weiss. Snaking his left arm around Glynda's stomach, he lifted her out of their arms, momentarily leaving the two behind before they caught their stride alongside him.

"How many fucking times do we have to _kill _this thing?!" Yang growled as she unloaded more rounds into the Grimm chasing after them. Half of its flesh was melted, and you could see its heart MOVING for Pete's sake.

"I don't know! Just keep shooting it!" Jack shouted as he adjusted the two in his arms, tightening his grip on them.

"You are _freakishly _strong!" Blake shouted as the Faunus ran pace alongside them, even while carrying two people.

"NOT NOW BLAAAAAKE!" Jack screamed as he poured on the heat, muscles pumping as they cleared the final line of trees and entered the clearing they started in. The only airship left was the one they came in, hovering only feet above the ground, Ruby and Team JNPR waving them in, terrified looks on their faces as the Ursa Major burst through the treeline.

"Run guys! It's right behind you!" Jaune shouted at the top of his lung.

"I DON'T NEED THE FUCKING PLAY-BY-PLAAAY!" Jack shouted, veins bulging in his neck as he ran.

"Shoot the damn thing!" Blake shouted, Ruby, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren unloading everything they had at the Grimm, a few rounds almost grazing their heads. "Hey! Watch where you're shooting!"

"Sorry! This isn't really the most-stable platform to be shooting off of!" Ruby cried out as she took aim, a shot flying wide and missing it entirely.

"How could you miss? That thing's _literally _as big as the broadside of a barn!" Jaune raged.

"I don't see _you _doing anything, so shut the fuck up!" Ruby raged at the blond as she lined up another shot.

"Enough of this!" Weiss growled as she shot forward on a line of Glyphs, rounding on her heel before thrusting her Myrtenaster forward, a quintet of the largest Glyphs she could muster appearing in the Grimm's path. The Ursa Major crashing into all five of them was momentarily stopped, the recoil of the Glyphs' destruction caused Weiss to let out a shrill shriek, the heiress sent flying backwards. Jaune seeing what was about to transpire, valiantly leaped out of the Pelican, arms outstretched to catch her. However, the blond undershot his jump and wouldn't be able to reach her.

At the last possible second, Jack jumped in out of nowhere, the sun at his back as he carried two hot blondes in his arms like some valiant hero of old. His teeth biting down around Weiss' ribbon, his eyeballs bulged in their sockets as he reared his head back to not fall forward, sweat pouring off his body. Moments later the sole of his boot found home atop Jaune's head, the Faunus kicking off of him and sailing into the back of the airship, him and his passengers rolling to the floor in a pile of bodies.

"Oh come OOOOON!" Jaune cried as he fell to the ground in a heap, Blake hauling him up by his waistline before whirling around like a shot put and throwing the blond with all her strength, leaping in moments later, Ruby and Pyrra moving forward to grab them so they wouldn't fall as the airship rose.

**END OST**

"PUNCH IT!" Nora shouted at the pilot once everyone was in.

"I can't! The Blood Tray's not closed yet!" he shouted as the back of the ship barely closed.

"THEN TRY _KICKING_ IT!" she raged at him.

"It's no good! BRACE FOR IMPACT!" the pilot shouted out, everyone grabbing the nearest person they could as the half-immolated Ursa Major nearly closed the gap.

"Hey ugly! Wish on _these _fireworks!" a new voice shouted, a pair of missile screaming into the Grimm's side and detonating with a violent **_*KRA-KROOOOOM!*_**, the half-immolated monster sent tumbling away from the ascending Pelican.

"Sazh? Holy shit is that you? Man, _you're _a sight for sore eyes!" the pilot asked out as he slumped over in relief. "What're you doing here?"

"Oz asked me to run this old bird through some "_training exercises_". Said I might find something more exciting to do out here than drills."

"Of course he did," the pilot chuckled, the door to the Blood Tray finally closing, some of the students pressing their faces against the blast shield window.

"How much ammo… do you have?" Glynda coughed out as she rolled her legs under herself.

"Enough to finish the job you started. You guys go on ahead. It's time for this bear to _hibernate_," the pilot of the other airship said, Ruby gasping loudly with stars in her eyes as it finally came into view.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" Ruby squealed in excitement practically fluttering in the air. "That's an AC-220 Gunship! Also known as the Vulture, it was considered _the _premier aerial combat vehicle for extended air-to-ground battles! Due to immense combat loses from recent bouts of infighting in Atlas, and because its usage is viewed as unethical due to the immense firepower it carried that could level entire cities, this form of death-from-above slowly faded out of use until the Vale council had purchased the rights to produce their own! Albeit with the newest tech and improved materials," she said calming down a bit as she fangasmed over the flying war machine before her with all the zeal of an adolescent girl talking about boy bands. This one still sported its original drab green paint job, albeit with Beacon's insignia slapped onto the sides and the bottom.

"Ruby! Come here, quick!"

"In a minute, Yang! The Vulture's about to fire its Argent V missiles!" Ruby said waving her sister off as she pressed her face to the glass. "Eeeee! And I think its A-74 Sylver Vertical Missile Launchers are moving into their attack configuration!" she squealed as its twin GUA-23/AW/Linkless Feed Autocannons belched out more 30mm rounds at it to distract it.

"It's Jack! Something's wrong with him!" Weiss shouted, the color draining from the girl's face as she whipped her head away from the glass right as the _real _fireworks began.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Uuuuugh…" _*Cough*Cough* _"Bluuuuugh…"

"What's happening?" Ruby asked worriedly as she slid to a stop at the front of the Blood Tray. Glynda was leaning against the wall recovering her strength, Pyrrha kneeling in front of her, everyone else blocking her view of Jack. Pushing her way past Blake and Jaune, Ruby gasped at the state Jack was now in.

Despite the fact that his head was resting in Pyrrha's lap, something most guys would _kill _for, it was obvious that the Faunus was suffering. His skin was an unnaturally pale shade, clammy, with dark bags under his bloodshot eyes. He was sweating buckets, his hair matted down against his head as his clothes soaked through with perspiration. Nora and Yang were desperately holding the Faunus' shoulders down as he flailed about, coughing and moaning as Ren threw himself and Jaune over the Faunus' legs pinning him in place. But what stood out most of all was that atop his chest, the skin over his sternum had become an unnatural shade of jet black, like she were staring into a bottomless pit.

"What… What _is _this?" Ruby gaped as she peered into the black spot on Jack's chest, which was slowly growing.

"When you… came to get me… Jack was exposed to…" _*Cough*Cough* _"Black Dust," Glynda coughed out.

"What's Black Dust supposed to be?" Jaune asked as he fought against the Faunus' flailing shins.

"It's the black miasma that comes off of Grimm as they evaporate, you boob!" Weiss shouted at the blond before taking her handkerchief and dabbing Jack's forehead. The moment he coughed, wisps of black smoke passed his lips, which were now turning blue.

"What's _happening_?!" Ruby demanded, everyone clamming up as they looked between her and Jack. "Someone get to the fucking point dammit!" she shouted, Yang's hands going to her mouth as she gasped, Jack's clawed hand flailing out until she wrapped her arms around it and brought it down to the floor in an arm bar.

"All people have Souls, but not all people have Aura," Glynda started as she struggled to sit up. "If people that don't have their Aura unlocked are exposed to a Grimm on its death throes, the miasma they emit, Black Dust, will enter the body and expel the Soul from it… This is called Hollowing. If a Huntsman with their Aura unlocked is exposed to Black Dust, the only danger is having their Aura slowly depleted, but as long as you keep your distance, there's normally no risk. Jack however… He got exposed to Black Dust once his Aura had been completely exhausted… There was nothing protecting him from its corrosive effects on the spirit."

"What's it _doing _to him? And what's that black spot?" Ruby asked pointing at the black mark on Jack's body. It was like a hole, only you couldn't see the other side of it.

"That's the Black Dust… pushing his spirit out of his body… If we don't purge the Black Dust from his system… he will die," Glynda choked out.

"I got it. Stand back!" Ruby said brandishing the non-crescent-shaped blade of her Crescent Rose at his chest. "Everyone! Cover your eyes!"

"That won't work, Ruby!" Weiss shouted before the girl could give Jack the _worst _kind of appendectomy. "The Black Dust has become immaterial. Cutting his body open won't do anything!"

"Well what _do _we do? Jack's _dying_!"

"We need to give him an Auric Transfusion. It's his only hope," Ren said holding Jack's thighs down. Holding down legs was _way _harder.

"And how do we do _that_?" Jaune asked.

"We have to give him spirit energy… through the _lips_," Nora said cheekily, though the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"The _lips_?!" Jaune yelped out as he jumped back, one of Jack's flailing legs slipping out of Ren's arms and kicking him upside the head.

"Nora, Pyrrha! Hold him down! I'm going in!" Yang shouted as she lowered her face to Jack's.

"It's not that simple…" Glynda panted, stopping the blond mid-kiss. "Your Auric Control has to be very precise. Not enough and it'll be pushed out. Too much… and you'll kill him faster."

"Then _you _do it!" the blond shouted. "You're a teacher, so your Auric Control should be _loads _better than ours!"

"I can't…"

"Waddya _mean _you can't!" Yang raged, the Blood Tray lit up as embers danced off her hair.

"I'm too weak… Both from fighting, and from my _own_ exposure to the Black Dust," Glynda coughed out. "I'm sorry…"

"No…" Ruby cried as she slumped forward, tears streaming down her face.

"Mama… Mama is that you…" Jack wheezed, looking up at nothing as he tried to reach for something above him.

"Jack! Jack don't go into the light!" Pyrrha said holding down his shoulders.

"There's gotta be _something _we can do!" Blake shouted, looking around the Blood Tray for… _anything _they could use.

"How long until we get to Beacon?!" Ruby shouted at the cockpit.

"I'm flooring it, and I've already called the paramedics, but… I've seen this before… I don't think we'll make it in time…"

**Cue Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep OST - Tears of Light**

"No… Nonononono!" Ruby cried as she fisted her hair.

"Ruby… I'm so sorry… This is all my fault…" Glynda coughed out as she tried to crawl over to them, only for her arms to give out from under her, her body still too damn weak from the Black Dust that had almost completely overwhelmed her. Sure, they'd saved her life by coming back for her, but at what cost?**  
**

"Wh-Wh-What're you t-talking about, Glynda?" Ruby asked nervously as tears spilled down her face. "Jack's going to be fine… and we're going to go back to class… and everything's going to go back to normal… Right…? Right?!" she pleaded as she watched the black spot on Jack's chest grow slowly larger, denying all that was happening before her.

"Dammit… Dammit, we were so fucking close!" Yang cried as she pounded her fist on the floor. She wasn't about finesse, so she never bothered to work on Auric Control. And it wasn't like you could just _do _it with a little guidance, it took weeks, sometimes months of training to get it to an acceptable level.

"Hey… C'mon Jack… You'll bounce back from this… won't'cha?" Nora asked with a shaky grin as she began to cry too.

"Don't do this… This wasn't how today was supposed to end…" Ren said trying to hold back his tears.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" Glynda cried out as her student died right in front of her, his flailing becoming less and less energetic, his breaths slowing down.

_"Jack…"_ Weiss whispered as she looked down at him, her eyes watering as he let out smaller and smaller coughs, his arms slowly falling to his sides. _"Please__…" _she said as she went to Pyrrha's side, taking him from her lap and raising him into a reclining position. _"Come back to us__…" _she said as she slowly lowered her face to his, her body becoming alight with a soft white glow.

"Weiss… don't-" Jaune tried to say as his heart cracked, his hand reaching out for her only for Nora to pull him into a full-nelson.

_"Jaune! There's a time and place for your creepy-stalker-fanboy routine, and right now isn't that time. Someone's _dying _over there," _Nora hissed.

_"Don't die on me__… you hear?" _she asked as her lips ghosted over his own, closing her eyes as she closed the gap entirely. Wrapping her arms around his body and holding him close, the glow of her Aura began to radiate brightly, illuminating the Blood Tray as the heiress scrunched her brow in concentration. After a few moments, a white light was suddenly visible within Jack's body, trickling down the inside of his throat like water before spilling out across his chest. Black specks beginning to slowly dance out the dark mark on his chest, the heiress put more emotion, more _feeling _into it, the light glowing brighter as she moved her lips over his, tilting her head for a better fit. Then, suddenly, a geyser of black and white particles like snow mixed with mountain ash exploded from Jack's chest, spilling out into the air before harmlessly dissipating. This went on for several seconds, the black mark on his chest growing smaller and smaller until the last specks of energy dissipated into the air. Weiss separating from the Faunus with a gasp, she collapsed backward into Ruby's arms, almost all of _her _Aura now gone. "Did… Did we make it in time?" she asked looking at Jack's sleeping expression. "The black spot is gone, so the Black Dust should've been purged from his system… right?"

There was a palpable silence in the Blood Tray that seemed to stretch on for eternity. No one breathed, so the only noise was the hum of the Pelican's engines. Glynda, having finally scooted her way over to them, went to his wrists and his neck looking for a pulse. Glynda's hands falling back, the woman shook her head, fear seizing the teens' hearts before Jack started a fit of coughing. Everyone looking down, they saw that he was gripping at his chest as he coughed, the color slowly returning to his face.

"Jack! You're okay!" Weiss said with tears in her eyes as she hugged him tightly. "I thought we lost you! Do you have any idea how worried you made me-" she said as she nuzzled her face into his muscular chest, before feeling everyone's eyes on her. Suddenly leaping back, leaving the Faunus to fall back into Pyrrha's lap, the heiress coughed awkwardly with a flush on her cheeks. "I mean… Of _course _you're alright… Auric Control's old pat for someone like me…" she said making a tiny Glyph appear as she twirled her finger. "You were never in any daaanger or anything, heheheh…" she said facing away from everyone else, delicate fingers going to her lips. _'He tastes sweet__… Like honey, and Red Sap,' _she realized as her tongue ghosted out across her lips.

"Yes! We're going _home_!" Ruby cheered now that everyone was okay, throwing her arms into the air, tears of joy, instead of sorrow, streaming down her face unimpeded.

"Oh thank _god_!" Yang sighed as she collapsed onto her butt, releasing a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"That was _much _too close," Blake sighed as she fell back, lazily spreading herself out full-eagle. "Adult literature" had _nothing _on real-world drama playing out in front of her.

"I'm so relieved," Pyrrha sighed as she wiped some sweat from her brow.

"We _did _cut things rather close, though," Ren sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Who knew Weiss was willing to bite-the-bullet like that?" Nora asked with a shrug of her shoulders, Jaune sitting in the corner as he hugged his knees to his chest.

"Ruby… Weiss… Blake… Yang," Glynda spoke up as she made to stand, leaning against the wall for support, before giving up and settling herself into one of the Blood Tray's seats. "I never got the chance to say this… but thank you… for saving my life," she said as she pulled the torso-bar over her head. "If you… _all _of you," she said casting a look Jack's way, "hadn't come back for me, then that's where my story would've ended… So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I owe you my life."

"No prob, teach," Yang said with a smile as she settled Jack's head into her lap, idly stroking his bangs out of his face.

"Yeah! What're comrades for?" Ruby said with a chipper smile.

"We wouldn't be Huntresses-in-training if we left one of our own behind," Weiss said with a satisfied smile. What she'd gone through was _way _more terrifying than when she fought the Possessed Armor, but the rush of adrenaline as she ran for her life, her every future moment on the line… It felt really good, actually.

"That _was _terrifying beyond the capacity for rational thought, though," Blake stated as she settled herself into one of the Blood Tray's seats. "Can we expect extra credit for this toward our next semester?"

"Blake!" Weiss squawked indignantly.

"What?" the black-haired beauty asked.

"Too soon!" the heiress shrieked.

"Is it? Is it _really_?" Nora asked conspiratorially.

"Yes!/Yeah!" the heiress and the brawler blurted out at the same time, sharing a good-natured laugh before letting out tired sighs, the day finally catching up with them.

"Pilot," Glynda said toward the front. "Let the medics waiting for us know… that everything's alright on our end. We'll still need a couple of beds waiting for us when we get there, but for the time being… none of us are in immediate danger."

"You got it," the pilot returned with a smile as he got Beacon back on the horn, glad he didn't have to watch another student die on his watch.

**END OST**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The moment their airship landed in the airfield, paramedics were already waiting for them; apparently the Helipad at the infirmary wasn't rated for a full-blown Pelican. As soon as the Blood Tray opened, Jack was placed atop a gurney, the doctors checking his vitals as they loaded him into the on-campus ambulance. The whole of Team RWBBY tried to pile in, but the medics said they could only fit in two teammates.

"You guys go ahead. I'll catch up," Blake said stepping back.

"Jack…" Ruby whispered, her hands practically _glued _to his arm the entire time they'd been loading him in.

"I…" Weiss said with a flush on her face as she looked between Ruby and Yang. "I should leav-"

"Weiss…" Yang said putting a hand on the heiress' shoulder, looking her in the eye. "You saved his life… when the rest of us couldn't. You made a _miracle _happen, and I think it's only fitting you see him all the way through… Okay?" she said pushing the heiress back into her seat.

"Tha… Thank you…" Weiss found herself breathing out.

"Hey, don't worry about it," the blond brushed her off. "We'll catch up to you at the hospital, so-" Noticing the paramedic telling her to wrap it up, the blond leaned forward and whispered into the heiress' ear. _"As soon as we meet up, I want_ details _about the kiss__, you dig~?_" the blond said in a sing-song tone, the heiress suddenly blushing as bright as Ruby's hood. _"After all, that must've been _sooooome _kiss if he made our little Ice Queen all hot and bothered~" _she whispered huskily into the girl's ear. _"Makes me wonder what would've happened to you if he kissed_ back~"

Weiss, her mouth opening and closing like a fish, raised a finger to rebuke the blond, only for Yang to close the door in her face. Banging her fist on the side of the ambulance, the driver got the message and drove off, the blond brawler letting out a sigh as she laced her fingers behind her head.

"Wow Yang. That was really mature of you," Blake said to her partner as soon as the ambulance disappeared from sight. Obviously, she didn't hear the more _risque _topic they were discussing.

"Yeah, Yang. I thought you would've been all _over _that!" Nora said, much more chipper now that Jack wasn't dying right in front of her. "In-"

"In more ways than one, yes," Ren cut in, in good fun.

"Jaune… Jaune is something wrong?" Pyrrha asked her teammate, shoulders slumped and hands in his pockets, the blond quiet as a grave up 'til now.

" . . . It's nothing… I'm fine," Jaune sighed tiredly as he brushed her off. He didn't do it to be _mean_, but he was just exhausted. Both physically, and emotionally. "Just… a little drained. I'd rather be alone right now."

"I think Jaune's a little upset that Jack got to live-the-dream. And all _he _did was _lie _there," Nora said after the blond had walked away.

"We really _should _be getting to the hospital, though," Ren stated.

"It wouldn't hurt to get a pick-me-up though," Blake suggested. "I'm sure that almost dying gives a guy quit an appetite."

"I'm sure he'd appreciate that very much," Pyrrha said with a smile.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"And you're _sure_ he'll be okay?" Ruby asked Dr. Katt outside room **356** after Jack had been wheeled in, the doctors inside relieving him of his clothes as they placed him in a hospital bed. Seriously though, why was it _always _room number **356** he was sent to? This was three times already. Was someone making some kind of joke or what?

"Yes, Ms. Rose. Jack's going to be just fine," the Faunus waved off. "You're fortunate you were able to give him that Auric Transfusion when you did. Any longer and the damage from his Soul de-synchronizing with his body would've been permanent."

"That's good to hear," Weiss said with a relieved sigh. Soul de-synchronization was more of a _spiritual _condition, and thus modern medicine barely understood how to rectify it. All that was truly understood was that over-exposure to a Grimm's "miasma" upon death could cause it. Survivors said there was darkening of vision, they felt cold, but more over they couldn't move on their own until rescued.

"I am curious though, who made the miracle happen? From what I'm told, the Hollowing had progressed pretty far before you saved him." Ascertaining the size of the "hole" before purging had been one of the big questions asked on the way there.

"That would be me," Weiss said with a smile as she held a small Glyph in her hand. It wasn't as powerful as a full-sized one, but that she could get it as small as a saucer was testament to her skill level. Nowhere near her sister's, but it was a start. Ever since Jack repeatedly punched her in the face while trying to Summon, she'd been training in her off-time to make her Glyphs more-powerful.

"I see," the woman said raising a brow in surprise. Based on how the two had sent one another to the infirmary a while back, she'd assumed Weiss was the _last _person who wanted to save Jack. "Mind if I ask the method?"

"I gave my Aura to him through… _through the lips," _she whispered as she flushed slightly.

"…Oh," Dr. Katt blinked after a couple seconds. "That seems rather _personal_, but I'm glad it worked."

"What do you _mean "_rather personal"? It was the only way to save him, wasn't it?" the heiress asked.

"Well, there _are _multiple ways to perform an Auric Transfusion. Conducting it through the lips is the easiest I suppose, and there _were _more extreme methods you could've used instead."

"More extreme? Like _what_?" Weiss asked, wondering if Nora had _known _about these other methods or not, and had made her k-k-kiss Jack for giggles. _'It was my first one,' _she realized before Dr. Katt leaned forward and whispered into her ear. Ruby wasn't sure what the doctor was saying, or why Weiss' face was flushing brighter and brighter as the seconds ticked by, but by the time she finished, Weiss looked like a tomato up to the roots of her hair.

"You could've also pushed the Aura straight into his body through the skin, but the end-result would've been the same," Dr. Katt said adjusting her glasses. "From what I know of your Team, you really _are _the only one who had the control necessary for that to work. Though I'm curious why Glynda didn't do it instead, method regardless."

"Glynda got hit really hard by whatever that thing was doing to her. She was really cold and clammy by the time we got to her," Yang answered.

"Ah, drowning by Black Dust. Bad way to go," Dr. Katt said with a shake of her head. "It's fortunate you got to Jack as soon as you did. _I can only imagine the Horror he would've turned into after that if you didn't," _she muttered to herself too low for them to hear.

"How is she by the way?" Weiss asked, also worried for her instructor.

"She lost most of her Aura, but she had enough left over to avoid Hollowing altogether. She's just a little weak right now is all. She should be back on her feet after a good rest and a nice hot meal."

"Can we see them?" Ruby asked. The teachers' rooms were on the next floor, so they'd have to make a separate trip to visit her.

"**YOU CAN'T HAVE MY BOOTY!**"

_***CRASH***_

"Looks like he's awake," Dr. Katt said without missing a beat, sounding like someone crashed into a cabinet. "Episodic flashbacks of… various natures, are common side-effects of having Black Dust purged from your system, so you should probably go in there and tell him he's alright-_and_ they're gone…" she said realizing they'd already left.

"Jack! Jack it's _okay_! You're safe now!" Ruby said coming into the room, the nurse sent crashing into a cabinet rubbing the back of his head. Expense reports for damaged furniture were most-common when it came to teenagers with super-strength. Thankfully all the nursing staff had _some _Auric ability to draw upon, so legitimate injuries were much less common.

_*Pant*Pant*Pant*_ "I… I see…" Jack said realizing he was in a hospital room, lying down before reclining his bed, the hospital staff filing out now that he was settled. "Did everyone make it out okay? What happened to Goodwitch?"

"She's going to be fine. We got to her just in time," Weiss said with a smile.

"That's good," Jack said with a smile as he coughed. Reaching over for the pitcher of water, Weiss was quick to pour him a glass, which he drank heavily from.

"So um… Jack?"

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"What was that about 'You can't have my booty'?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

"Just a flashback. Some girls can be _really _grabby," Jack shuddered as he made upward-grabby motions with his hands.

"Oh… I thought you meant… _something else_," Weiss said awkwardly.

" . . . You've got a dirty mind if _that's _the first thing you thought of," the Faunus deadpanned, the heiress slapping him over the back of the head. "Ow! What was that fo-"

"What were you _thinking_, rushing in with no Aura like that!?" Weiss shouted at him now that he was awake. "Don't you realize you could've _died_?! Or _worse_!"

"My body just moved on its own," he said trying to play it off. "Happens all the time."

"Yes, well, if you're going to be part of this team, you can't just rush headlong into danger like that! You got lucky _this _time, but next time you really _could _get yourself killed. And how do you think we'd all feel _then_?!" she pleaded as she put a hand to her chest. "Ruby was utterly _beside _herself, as was Yang and everyone else! Do you know what we went through, watching you die right in front of us, thinking we'd _lost _you!?"

"I… I'm sorry…" Jack sighed as he slumped back in his bed. "I just didn't wanna let Goodwitch die. Not after she joined _the list_."

"_What _list?" Weiss asked.

"The list of people I want to fight again someday," Jack said cracking a smile, even as he flinched and grabbed his ribs. "I could practically _taste _the beat-down Glynda gave to the Major, and I knew if she came at me like _that_, things would've turned out _way _differently when we sparred. I bet it must've hurt her pride to almost hit the red from a student if she had _that _kind of stopping power."

"Yes, well, I don't think it would have looked good on the end-of-year review if she wound up _destroying_ her own building," Weiss sighed.

"We're just glad you're okay," Ruby sighed as she reached forward and hugged him, nuzzling into his chest.

"I'm glad I'm okay too," Jack chuckled as he stroked her hair. "What's wrong? You look like you swallowed a lemon," he said turning to the heiress.

"Nothing… Nothing's wrong…" Weiss said as she crossed her arms and turned away.

"You know… I noticed the inside of my mouth tasted like peppermint ever since I regained consciousness," the Faunus said aloud, the heiress whipping her head around to face him. "I take it _you're _the reason for that?"

"…Yes," Weiss admitted after a couple seconds.

"…Thank you. I owe you my life," Jack said bowing his head. "And that isn't something I say casually. I really mean it."

"Well, you know… What are friends for?" the heiress asked turning to him with a smile.

"Eeeeeeee! I'm so happy the two of you are finally getting along so well!" Ruby squealed as she wrapped her arms around the two and brought them close for a group hug, their faces touching.

"Please don't squeal so loud. My ears are still ringing from that tree. I'm pretty sure the one that stopped me hurt the most," Jack groaned as he rubbed his head, Ruby embarrassingly clamming up as she let the two go. A moment later and the rest of Team RWBBY came in, followed by JNPR with exception to its leader.

"Hey guys!" Yang smiled brightly as she came in. "We have _cinnamon buns_~" she sung as she and Blake held up bags from one of the bakery-businesses on campus, a little specialty store by the name of **CinnaBlast**.

"And _pancakes_!" Nora whooped as she held up a to-go box. "Those bite marks were _toootally _already there, though."

"We would've gotten here sooner, but we had to ensure our Red Sap got to Professor Peach," Ren stated.

"Hey, what happened to that Saber Rabbit I caught? Did you leave it behind?" Jack asked, eyes narrowing on the last part.

"Nope! I passed it along to the school butcher, _Butcher_. He got really friendly when I dropped your name for some reason," Nora said with a smile.

"Well, it's rare that _fresh _Hide and Cherreeks with almost all their flavor intact come onto the market. I guess Jack built up some consumer confidentiality here at Beacon with that little stunt he pulled," Ren theorized.

"Oh good. Something to look forward to when they let me out of here," Jack said as he tried to sit up, only to wince as he sat back down. "Urgh…"

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing… Just a couple aches," Jack sighed as he leaned back into his pillow. "Letting that Grimm get the jump on me… I got a little careless."

"Or maybe… hot-_headed_," Yang chuckled, the others staring blankly at her. "Oh come on, that was a _good one_."

"No, that was just too easy," Ruby groaned.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Glynda made the same mistake too," Blake saw fit to comment.

"Yeah, but Glynda turned that entire field into a smoking crater. She _earned _the right to get cocky," Jack said crossing his arms. _"All_ I _did was torch some grass and burn down a few trees,_" he huffed to himself.

"Speaking of smoking…" Ruby started. "What was that thing you did earlier? You know, the one where you clenched your fist around Weiss' Dust as though you were holding an extremely valuable locket, given to you by your lover's grandma's ex-husband's mother who made it and died protecting it from bandits?" she asked, the others trying to wrap their heads around the super-specific nature of her metaphor. "You were all _breeeeen_, and _whoosh_, and _fwooooooom_, and calling out the names of your attacks like something in Gunvolt!" she said making grand motions with her arms, "when last time I checked, your Semblance gave you super-strength."

"Well, my Semblance is called Polarity," Pyrrha believed. "I believe Jack called his _Burst_, after the explosive burst of power it gives him. However, I believe what he did is called Dust _Synergy_."

"Dust Synergy? What's that?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

"I suppose it's understandable that you don't know. Dust Synergy is a highly-advanced technique that isn't taught at most schools, due to the inherent dangers behind it," Weiss stated.

"O…kaay… but what did Dust have to do with giving Jack _superpowers_?" Ruby asked, remembering back to all the awesome flame-based attacks he did. They'd also chewed up a ton of his Aura, because she'd been monitoring him on her Scroll as he fought, but the fight was _wicked _intense she almost forgot about it.

"A possible application of Dust is the ability to modify the properties of your Semblance on-the-fly to adapt to varying battlefield conditions," Blake stated. "For example, if you gave me Red Dust, my clones would become like bombs of fire. Slate Dust would petrify them into solid cover, while Cyan Dust would turn them into statues of ice when disturbed." During her time in the White Fang, she'd done a little experimenting. The only problem was, using Dust so frivolously for those purposes took away most of their stopping power while they were still in the mag, and it was expensive to boot.

"Yeah, but Jack doesn't _make _Shadows like you. This time around, _he _was the one that was on fire," Yang said crossing her arms.

"That's because Blake's _Shadow_ is an "External Manifestation Type", or External-Type Semblance, while Jack's _Burst _is an "_In_ternal Manifestation Type", or Internal-Type Semblance," Weiss explained. "External-Types like Blake and Pyrrha's are characterized by the ability to alter the world _around _them, like with clones, or constructs, or the ability to move objects with your spirit. _Internal-_Types like Jack and Nora's have the ability to augment the body in a more _direct _fashion. All Semblance are divided into these two overarching categories, and from there branch off into countless other sub-types. New and more-unique Semblance are catalogued all over the world every year, but they all still fall within these two categories."

"Of course… Internal-Type Semblance users are exposed to greater amounts of danger while using Dust Synergy, in exchange for the bigger payout," Ren stated.

"Greater _how_?" Ruby asked.

"Well… Try to think of the inherent dangers of Dust Synergy with these two different types as the difference between a flamethrower and a rocket fueled by old-timey oil," Jack said coming back into your conversation. "First, think of your Aura as gasoline, and then think of your Semblance as the gasoline once it's been ignited. Now, imagine that Blake is using a flamethrower, while Yang is using a rocket strapped to her back, but the flamethrower and rockets represent their own bodies. Blake's "Aura" is only ignited outside of her "body", and thus the risk to herself is minimal because the "ignition" has been externalized. However, for Yang, because rockets work like a controlled explosion, she needs to control the rate at which she discharges the explosion in a very precise manner, otherwise she'd be a veritable pipe bomb," he said making an explosion gesture with his hands. "While you get more raw power out of a rocket then a flamethrower, the inherent risk of igniting your "Aura" are much greater."

"So… If Yang tried to use Dust Synergy with Red Dust… she'd _explode_?" Ruby asked, the image of her sister comically exploding like in an old cartoon appearing in a thought bubble over her head.

"The explosion isn't _that _literal, _in most cases,_" he muttered to himself, "but it's used to get the point across about how dangerous Dust Synergy can _be _if done too early in your training, where your Auric Control isn't at a high-enough level."

"I somehow feel like if he were here, Jaune would ask, _"Uh, what's Auric Control, dur?",_" Weiss pantomimed exaggeratedly. "Honestly, how that boy ever made it into Beacon is a _mystery _to me," the heiress sighed, Pyrrha uncomfortably rubbing her arm. And it wasn't like Weiss was wrong, Jaune probably _would _ask what "Auric Control" meant, which was essentially "control of one's Aura". And the word "Auric" meant "of Aura" or "relating to Aura". It honestly surprised her how lovestruck she was that she never noticed all these little signs that something was "off" about him, other than being "different" from the rest of the boy.

"Enough about Jaune," Jack waved off in dismissal. "Anyway, people who use Dust Synergy incorrectly don't _always _explode. _Literally_. Sometimes they cause internal damage to themselves that can be just as bad if not _worse_."

"But wait, don't people mix Aura into Dust for Nature's Wrath?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, but the dangers are different. If you catalyze Dust with too much Aura, the manifestation of Nature's Wrath could spiral beyond one's ability to control, and swallow them up, literally and/or metaphorically. However even then, the Dust Reaction is only in the _environment_," Weiss explained. "If an Internal-Type Semblance performs Dust Synergy incorrectly, the catalyzation of Dust could wreak untold damages upon your body. While it's still being heavily debated if Aura flows through the body like an auxiliary circulatory system, or circuits on a motherboard, or that the bodies themselves are merely vessels for Aura, the fact of the matter is, catalyzing Dust within the body is, like Jack put it before, lighting a _pipe bomb_ if done incorrectly. The consequences could range from immolation, to electrocution, to even having your internal temperature drop like a lead weight and freeze yourself solid," she lectured, those with Internal-Type Semblance shuddering at the imagery that came up.

"But wait a minute, doesn't Dust Implantation do the same thing though?" Yang asked. She'd always contemplated having Red Dust added to her knuckles for _literal _flaming punches, even when she wasn't using her Ember Celica, or maybe even because she wanted to add a little more "kick" to her punch.

"Not exactly," Weiss answered with a shake of her head. "While the comparison between Dust Implantation and Dust Synergy have been the subject of heavy debate over the years, especially with recent advances in Aura reading technology and Dust's applications in the medical field, the level of _immersion _between Dust that is Implanted or Synergized are like night and day. When Dust is _implanted_, either surgically within the body and allowed to heal _around _it and assimilate it, or just below the skin, the physical distinction between the Dust and one's Self are still readily apparent, and the influence of Dust on the body as a whole is minimum, limited solely to the _site _of the implantation itself. However, when Dust is _synergized _with Aura as it circulates through the body, it enters a pseudo-immaterial state, spreading throughout every part of the body. What's more, because it bonds to the soul _itself_, alteration of one's Semblance in the case of Internalized-Types can cause certain… complications."

_*Gulp* _"C-Complications?" Ruby gulped.

"That's right," Jack said crossing his arms. "Ruby, do you remember how I acted when I used Fire-Type Dust Synergy?"

"Uh yeah. You fought without care for what you destroyed, and in some cases you were just needlessly cruel to your victims," Ruby shuddered as she remembered those two limbless Ursa he'd tormented up until the very end.

"Like a fire attacking everything in sight?"

"Y… Yeah…"

"Well, the reason for that is kinda obvious when you think about it," Jack said with a shrug. "Aura is the Soul's power given form, while Semblance is the _expression _of that form. If you take Dust into your Aura, if you change the Soul's _expression_, then you're basically imparting changes to the soul itself. This can cause personality changes ranging from subtle shifts in how you carry yourself, to a complete exacerbation of a single or multiple aspects of your personality. In my case, because I used Red Dust, I became cruel and uncaring like fire. In essence, I'd _literally _become a different person, if only for a few minutes."

"Huh…?" Yang asked trying to wrap her head around it.

"People are who they are _because _of their Souls, so it goes without saying that if you go around changing your soul, you change yourself as a consequence," Weiss lectured. "The greatest danger that Dust Synergy has on Internal-Type uses, is that if you use it too long, or too many times in a short amount of time, or you just let the power control and overwhelm you, the person you were _before _will slowly disappear, until there's no trace of the original personality left. While it's true that the _body _will live on, the person _inside _it will not be the same."

"Try to think about Yang's personality, and her Semblance as a response to that," Jack said to the confusion on Ruby's features. "Yang is bright and sunny, always smiling and making you feel at home. However, if she were to synergize Cyan Dust into her body, she'd probably become a dead-inside _emotionless _broad who you'd more likely mistake for Weiss' next-of-kin instead of your own sister."

"Hey!" Weiss yelped as Ruby and Yang desperately hugged one another.

"So suffice it to say, over-using Dust Synergy is both dangerous, and highly irresponsible because it'll hurt the people around you as you watch someone you know basically disappear before your eyes, and all you're left with is a stranger that knows _you_, but you barely know _them _anymore," Jack went on to explain.

"But wait a minute, doesn't that mean _you _ran the risk of becoming someone else?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"One of the key requirements for Dust Synergy is an incredible degree of Auric Control. It can come from many long hours or practice, but the _best _users of Aura learn to accept both the Light and Darkness inside of themselves. What essentially equates to a state of enlightenment."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"Well for starters… I'm an asshole, I'll admit it," he said causing everyone to lurch at the admissal. "I enjoy the feeling of lording my strength over those weaker than me as I turn my nose up at them, sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically. I enjoy the rush of adrenaline in battle as I contemplate how to hurt and/or emasculate my opponents, and deep down I enjoy the crunchy sound of breaking one's legs accompanied by the sound of their screams."

_*GAAAAASP* _Nora gasped widely, her eyes the size of saucers before she got on her knees by Jack's bed and held his hands in her own. "It's like we're _soulmates_…" she breathed out as she looked deeply into his eyes. Not in a _romantic _way per-se, but a super-creepy kinda way. Like, the kinda creepy you find on a blind date that reminds you how only minutes before, your best friend told you over the phone- "Don't ever stick your dick in crazy."

**"I have no idea what that means."**

**I know, Caboose. I know.**

**" . . . Know what?"**

**Ugh.**

"I think anyone who's watched you for more than five minutes would probably see that, but what does _accepting _that part of yourself have to do with Auric Control?" Weiss asked.

"If you don't _accept _your Dark and only see your Light, it's like you're basically _ignoring _half of yourself, and only chosing to _control _one aspect. Like you only know how to change the station on the radio, but ignore the volume because it's _"too loud"_ if you change it," Jack said making air quotes. "_Shaping _your Aura is a key factor in performing Artes like you've seen me, Nora, and even Ren use, as well as Nature's Wrath like you've seen from Glynda; but in order to do that, you need to understand _yourself_. That comes from a spiritual understanding that you can't get out of a textbook, only when you learn and grow as a person, and realize who _you _are, not how you _think _you are. This can be a big help in life, because if you can _ration _your Aura, you won't waste it as you use your Semblance or other abilities, but only use as much Aura is _necessary _without waste. Weiss," he said turning to her. "Since we began talking to one another, has it become any easier to summon your Glyphs?"

"Actually… it kind of has," she admitted, remembering how easy it was to stack multiple Glyphs on top of one another to slow down that Ursa Major. It didn't work _completely_, but the five _did _slow it down, whereas a _single _Glyph wouldn't have slowed it down in the slightest.

"That's because you realized how much of a racist _bitch_ you were being for _profiling _me the way you had; just because I was a Faunus, and because of what my parents may or may not have done in the last war. More importantly, you learned that thinking that way was _bad_, and unfounded in addition to being unfair to the latter party," he said curtly, the heiress pouting his way. "That you're taking this so well is just a sign that you're growing up. That you're learning to accept that part of yourself and grow past it to become a better person, as well as accept criticisms from others."

"Maybe…" Weiss hummed. It was only after talking with Professor Port and learning how much of a spoiled brat she was being just because she couldn't lead Team RWBY, that she began to grow past the "spoiled little princess" phase of her life. Especially when she was no longer being pampered in the lifestyle to which she'd become accustomed.

"Back onto the topic at hand. Yes, while the risk was lessened because I accepted both my Light _and _my Dark, and had a better grasp of who _I _was that I could better hold-on to that sense of self, the risk was still there," Jack explained. "Even if that Ursa Major hadn't broken through my Aura, I'd have still had to "_purge" _it completely from my system because there were still traces of Red Dust in there."

"Couldn't you just purge _only _the Aura that had Red Dust in it, instead of all of it?" Ruby asked.

"Have you ever tried getting the chocolate powder out of milk after you mix the two together? It doesn't work that way," Jack said before she could answer. "Once you mix Dust into your Aura and take it into your body, Internal-Type users will have to purge it _all _from their systems. External-Types like Blake and Weiss don't have to purge all their Aura, because the catalyzing of Dust that they synergize happens _outside _their bodies, instead of being taken in; once again, the difference between a rocket and a flamethrower," he said, causing Ruby to drop her fist into her hand in understanding. "Of course, that doesn't even _count _the stresses that using Dust Synergy imparts on your body, which can be quite large for Internal-Types, so you also need a certain constitution for it."

"But wait, I'm confused," Yang said. "If you change your Aura with Dust, wouldn't you change as a person _anyway_, even after expending your Aura in the case of an Internal-Type Semblance user?"

"Not exactly," Weiss cut in. "Aura comes from your Soul, but it isn't your Soul _itself_. If you run out of Aura, you won't die, but if your Soul is extinguished, either by something soul-shattering happening to you, or over-exposure to Black Dust, then you _will _die because independent of biology, your Soul is what makes you _alive_. While science and medicine have become able to measure Aura, the _Soul _is still completely intangible in both of those realms, and still solely exists within the domain of philosophy, spirituality, and religion, because in _those _doctrines, you don't need _proof _that it exists… only faith."

"Uh…" Yang hummed, still confused.

"Try to think of your Soul like a match that won't go out. Now, imagine your Aura as the kindling used to make that fire burn brighter. Even if you take away the kindling, the mach will still be there, and can light a fire again," Jack summarized, Yang nodding her head in understanding.

"You know, I was really confused at first, but after all these metaphors, I think I'm starting to get the difference between Dust Synergy for Internal and External-Types," the blond hummed.

"Talks about the Soul and the Aura that comes from it, as well as the Semblance which is the expression of _that_, can get a bit jumbled when everyone is thinking of different things," Weiss stated. "There _have _been theories about what would happen if you were to bond Nature's Wrath to the Soul _itself_, but such a thing has never been successfully implemented because the Soul is still _unknown _in that we don't know _what _binds it to the body, or even if it's truly there. However, Aura and Semblance have to come from _somewhere_, so that in itself is still credence of the _concrete _existence of a Soul even if no other evidence exists."

"Think of it like the Devil's Proof. You can't prove that the devil exists, but at the same time, you can't prove he _doesn't_ exist, because the subject matter is completely intangible," Ren stated sagely.

"So then… Internal-Type Semblance uses will have to flush out _all _their Aura from their bodies after using Dust Synergy to change the properties of their Semblance, while _External-Type _Semblance users don't need to because the "synergization" happens _outside _their body away from the Soul itself?" Ruby asked.

"Very good, that's exactly it," Jack and Weiss said together, the latter blushing. "Another thing to remember is that the quantity and quality of Dust both impact how much and how long you can use Dust Synergy for," Jack went on to explain. "The more Dust you have, the longer you can use it for, while at the same time, the more _pure _Dust is, the more _kick _you get out of it. Essentially you could catalyze a _lot _of impure dust, or a little _near_-pure Dust to get the same time. The Red Dust I got from Weiss was a small vial of super-high-quality product, so it had a lot of kick to it before I exhausted it."

"And you were able to _"stretch it out" _because you have more _control _over your Aura?" Yang asked.

"Think of it like turning a faucet for a sink," Jack said pointing to the open bathroom door. "It's the difference between being able to change the pressure up and down in really small increments so you don't overfill a cup, or only being able to turn it on and off and you overfill your cup anyway."

"Is that a metaphor for waste emissions in Aura?" Ruby asked.

"That wasn't the intent, but _yes_, that sounds about right," Jack said with a shrug before he began coughing, Weiss rushing to his side and pouring him another glass of water. "Wow, we've been talking a really long time," he said looking down at his Scroll.

"Well what you did back there _was _pretty cool," Ruby said with a smile. "Hey! You think if I used Red Dust and mixed it into my Aura _inside _my body, I could do a Flame Tackle? Or would it be a Flare Blitz?"

"Ruby, you might be a prodigy for coming here two years early, but the amount of _control _you'd require to make that work safely is still out of your grasp," Weiss said crossing her arms. "You're an Internal-Type like your sister, so Dust Synergy will be harder for you than it would be for Blake or myself. However as a consequence, the _"__kick__" _that comes out of an Internal-Type it isn't as great in comparison."

"So then it's a trade-off? Higher risk, higher reward?" Yang asked.

"Yeah… but Yang, come here for a minute," Jack said, the blond coming over to his bedside. "Yang… Don't ever change," he said taking her hands in his own. "Changing your Semblance is like changing yourself. Sure, you get a power boost out of it, but before you ever decide to even _try _it, you have to be sure it's even _worth _it. And before you even _practice_, you need a partner there with you to remind you to purge your Aura afterwards, otherwise you won't even _notice _the change, and by the time you do… it'll be too late… and when the you you _were _is gone, that'll make everyone around you really sad because in a way, you _did _die, and you were replaced with a stranger wearing your face."

"…I understand," Yang said with a soft smile as she reached out and hugged him. "Don't worry. You won't have to say goodbye to the awesomeness that is me for a good long time," she said with a broad grin as she pressed her forehead against his own, enveloping him in a curtain of sunshine. Pecking him on the lips while no-one could see, she stepped back in time to appreciate the red tint on the Faunus' cheeks. "So Jack, it's getting close to dinner-time. You wanna join us?"

so quickly that no-one could see through the curtain her mane of golden blond hair made around their faces,

"I would… _Ngh_. But I'm tied down to this bed by medical Red Tape," Jack grunted as he tried to get up, only to flinch. "If anyone needs me, I'll be meditating until I'm well enough to sneak out," he said lacing his fingers over his chest and closing his eyes.

"It looks like you're sleeping," Blake commented.

"_Meditating_," Jack returned as he cracked open an eye before closing it again, the others chuckling as they began to file out.

"Man. Today was _really _tiring," Ruby sighed as she felt the day's events catch up to her.

"I'll say. I didn't think we'd see a Grimm _that _big today," Yang sighed with her hands behind her head. "_Seriously_, that thing was big enough to have its own zip code!"

"It _was _rather large, yes," Ren stated. Nora opened her mouth, possibly to make a penis joke because the girl had practically _no _speech filter, but the magenta-streaked teen was quick enough to put a hand over her mouth before she could say something inappropriate around the faculty walking by.

"I feel like an early dinner. Who wants to join me?" Blake asked, getting enthusiastic nods all around. Her Scroll vibrating in her pocket, Pyrrha looked down at it before saying-

"I'll catch you all later. There's someplace I have to be," the champion said as she ran off.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Cue Sword Art Online OST - In Your Past/A Tender Feeling**

Rushing back to her room as fast as she could, Pyrrha screeched to a halt before the door to her dorm. Swiping her scroll across the lock, the door clicked open, and the red-head rushed in. The first thing she saw was Jaune sitting on his bed, his sword and shield at his side, his chestpiece in his hands as he looked down at it. The blond looked ragged, and didn't even notice she came in until the bed springs creaked as she sat across from him.

"Oh… Hey Pyrrha…" Jaune said with a weak smile as he set the last of his armor pieces aside before looking at her. "I'm surprised you showed up… considering how I've been treating you guys the past week."

"Jaune… We're teammates. Of _course _I'd come if you called," Pyrrha said with a soft smile. "I notice you aren't hanging out with Cardin tonight. I thought the two of you were best buds?" she said in good humor.

"We uh… were talking about forming a _boy band _for the past week, but we broke up today after… _creative _differences," the blond joked weakly. _'Wow, that sounded even weaker after I said it out loud.'_

"Hmhm. I see," Pyrrha chuckled. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"There's… a confession I need to make," he said twitting his thumbs. "You were there with me since day one. You saved my _life _for Pete's sake, and I should've come to you first, but I had all this stupid macho guy stuff floating around in my head that I-"

"Jaune," she cut him off putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. I'm here to listen. So take things at your own pace. We're in no rush. The others went to dinner, so we have a bit of time to ourselves before the others return."

" . . . Pyrrha," he started off after a couple minutes. "I… I didn't earn my way into Beacon into Beacon like you and the others did. I got my hands on some fake transcripts… and I _lied_. I'm exactly the type of worthless garbage Jack said I was at lunch the other day. Of course, you probably already _knew _that. Cardin heard me flapping my lips from his room, so maybe you heard it too. But even if that's the case… I blurted it out to Jack, instead of coming to you first, so what I want to say is… I'm sorry. I know that no amount of words will ever make what I've done right, and you're free to walk right out that door and tell this to Ozpin, but before you do any of that, I just want you to know… that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for lying, but more importantly, I'm sorry about how my absence affected he team. I was your leader, and I left you on your own. I failed you… and I'm sorry."

"…It must've taken a lot for you to admit that," Pyrrha said after a couple seconds. It was one thing to hear it through a crack in the doorframe, but it was quite another to hear it towards _herself_. The confession _and _the apology.

"I should've come to you first," Jaune sighed. "And even though Cardin won't mess with us anymore, that doesn't change facts. I _lied _my way into Beacon, did all those things Jack accused a worthless slacker like me of doing. Even _if_, by some miracle, you don't decide to turn me in… I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go from here. Everything Jack said about gutless losers who lie their way into Beacon… guys like _me_… it was one-hundred percent true, and I have absolutely zero arguments to deny that sentiment with."

"Jaune… I think there's only one thing you _can _do," Pyrrha said getting his attention. "You train. You work hard. You become _strong_. You can't give back the time and effort that was put into your education here, so I think that all you really _can _do, is do all you can, and become _worthy _of your place here at Beacon. Stolen or not."

"Maybe… Maybe you're right," Jaune realized. "But… before I can think of any of that… there's one last hurdle I have to overcome, or I won't be able to move forward with my life."

"What's that?" Pyrrha asked.

"An apology. Well, _another _apology at least. I went to a very dark place today, and I need to apologize to the person I almost wronged on two fronts," Jaune said wringing his hands together.

"Oh. I see," Pyrrha said, realizing he was dead set on this. He probably wouldn't be very receptive to her offering to train him until he got this last piece of business done. Guys could be really stubborn that way. She'd seen it first-hand over the past week. "Who do you need to apologize to?"

"Jack…" the blond sighed. "But right now… I just want to rest. I'm really tired after today," he said as he tossed his armor pieces under the bed.

"I'm sure you are," Pyrrha said as she watched Jaune crawl under the covers, clothes and all. "I'm going to go get dinner. Do you want anything?"

"No… No, I'm fine," Jaune sighed as his eyes drooped shut. "Oh, and Pyrrha?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you… for giving me the benefit of the doubt," Jaune sighed as he laid his head into his pillow, Pyrrha offering a warm-hearted smile as she left to rejoin the others.

**END OST**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

It was the middle of the night. There were crickets chirping outside, leaves rustling in the wind, the moon high in the night sky. The hospital was almost quiet as a grave, and without it being flooded with artificial light, the whole place looked _really _creepy. As all in it slept, a set of quiet footsteps moved through the empty halls. Stepping before room **356**, a hand glowing with green Aura clasped the door handle, a force field of sorts expertly enveloping all the parts connected to it as the handle was turned, any noise silenced as the door opened and closed.

"It's the middle of the night, and I'm _really _tired after the day's events," a tired-sounding voice said from the end of the room. "So you'd better have a damned-good reason for waking me up, or else the next one getting a hospital bed in this place will be _you_?" Jack said as amber eyes glinted through the darkness.

"That's quite a warm reception, Jack," a man with tousled gray hair and brown eyes said as he stepped into the moonlight. "Glad to see you're in such high spirits after what happened this afternoon."

"Oh. Hey Ozpin. Why're you here? In my room? In the middle of the night?" Jack asked, growing quickly irritated he'd been woken up. "Unless there's someone _dying _right now, this isn't important-enough that it can't wait until the morning."

"What if I told you there _was _someone dying right now, and that the only thing keeping them alive was an array of top-of-the-line life support systems? Would you be willing to listen _then_?" Ozpin asked.

_*SIIIIIGH* "Walked right into that one," _Jack groaned to himself. "Alright Ozpin, you have me. What do you want?"

"Before any of that, I just want to let you know that Glynda was worried about you, and that she asked me to check up on you for her. However, something came up, and this is the soonest I was able to come," the man replied as he took a seat on the opposite bed, Jack glowering as he drummed his fingers on his arms. "Me, personally… I want to offer my thanks."

"It was a team effort. I couldn't have done it alone," Jack replied. "If it were _Dominic, _I _definitely _would've hesitated. But I genuinely like Glynda enough to put my life on the line for her."

"As someone with your unique… disposition, I can only imagine how hard it must've been to trust again. Especially after your old team gave you such a bad showing of humanity's potential."

"Yeah, no shit," the Faunus groaned as he closed his eyes. "Listen, I get it, someone's dying right now. Maybe they're in the ICU at this very moment. But I don't see how any of that relates to _me_, and why you telling me that Glynda wanted you to check in on me couldn't have waited until the morning."

"Very well then. I'll get straight to the point," Ozpin said as he adjusted his glasses. "I need your help."

"…You… need _my _help?"

"That _is _what I vocalized, yes."

"…You know, Ozpin, I'm going to level with you here," Jack said putting his fingertips together. "When I looked at you with my third eye that day, when all it took was an ounce of willpower for you to cow an entire room of headstrong people from all over the world into line, for a brief moment, I saw it… I _saw _it… Your presence, was completely overwhelming, a veritable wellspring of power that felt _bottomless_. Now, I have no idea if you could fight _that man _to a standstill or anything, but if anything I imagine it'd be a pretty close call to make," he rambled on before turning to face the headmaster. "Suffice it to say, if someone like _you _is worried about what goes bump-in-the-night, well… I think that warrants one's undivided attention, don't you think?"

"You're very observant, young man. Most wouldn't have been able to glean all that from a single moment's glance. I go to great lengths to keep my true power hidden," Ozpin said pulling a mug of hot chocolate from… somewhere.

"Yeah, well, you were dealing with a bunch of rookies who all thought _they _were hot shit. I don't think the concept of someone right in front of them being _that _powerful ever crossed their minds," Jack shrugged. "Suffice it to say, you have my attention. So let's hear it. Why does someone with your power, both literally and metaphorically, need _my _help?"

"There have been recent…_ movements_, that are cause for concern," Ozpin began taking a sip from his mug, while offering another to Jack, which he took after a few moments. "Dust thefts all over Vale putting everyone on edge and causing prices on product to go up, the emboldening of a certain cult-like organization into more direct action, among many others that few would think are interconnected, but are instead isolated incidents."

"Uh, yeah, I know all that. I keep an eye on the news and an ear on the ground. What you're telling me isn't anything new."

"That's true. However…" Ozpin hummed as he looked around, stretching out his senses for anyone who might be listening in. "We have reason to believe that all of this is being controlled by the hand of a single organized group, and if not that, then a _very _influential individual who is moving through the shadows, pulling strings from behind the scenes."

"We?"

"Hopefully things don't get so bad that you have to _meet _them, but I'd feel a little better knowing there was someone with your… _unique _skill-set on this."

"What aren't you telling me? Something must've _changed _if you're even contemplating bringing a _student _in on this."

"…A few days ago, there was a massive wave of thefts at a number of cold storage facilities in Atlas. All of which were highly classified with only a very select group of people knowing their exact location, with even _fewer _knowing what was in them," Ozpin began. "Before I could dig deeper into the exact _nature _of these thefts, or rather, what was _stolen_, an old friend of mine," he said not naming names, "put out a cease and desist order, and I became stonewalled. The availability of information on that incident has been cut off, and even the public at large isn't aware that anything even happened."

"Ozpin, I said I'd listen to what you'd have to say, that you had my undivided attention… but espionage is the sort of thing that people get _killed _over, no questions asked. So if _that's _what you're about to ask me to do, I'm going to have to respectfully decline your call to aid."

"Oh no, there's no need for you to go that far. I already have… _someone else_, looking into it," he said once again not naming names. "What I require of you is something a little… different."

"Different how?"

"…Jack… You've bonded deeply with Ruby Rose over the past couple of weeks, have you not?" he asked, the Faunus nodding his head in admission. "Do you believe she's ready for access to the Mission Boards?"

"Well…" Jack hummed as he crossed his arms. "A little real-world experience would do _wonders _for her training. Some things you can only grasp in the midst of combat instead of the classroom, as I'm sure you're aware," the Faunus stated after a couple seconds. "I've seen a few scythe-wielders in my day, and while I could make one walk, she can make one _dance_."

"So you actually know how to use a scythe?" Ozpin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Only enough that I won't chop my own leg off; a week of lessons a practitioner does not make. Like I said, I can make a scythe walk, but Ruby can make it _dance_. I certainly won't be changing weapons any time soon," Jack stated. "Anyway… Yes, I do believe that with her Team behind her, she could handle access to the Mission Boards. Obviously she'd have to start at the D-Rank missions like everyone else, but she can definitely handle it, though it may take a couple goes before she can call out paradigm shifts in the midst of combat and not break her rhythm. Why do you ask?"

"Well, first off, I'm thinking of granting this years' freshmen early access, given its exceptional number of prodigal students in the crop," Ozpin began. "I'm thinking of limiting it to D-Rank missions for the time being, something for them to get their feet on the ground, but I might broaden the scope of what you all have access to before the Vytal Festival for a little more _intensive _training."

"Are we going to be _paid_ for this?"

"Small sums of your pay will have to be returned to the Hunter Union for the sub-contracting, but yes, this will also be a way for students to be able to make money if they aren't on a parent's bankroll," Ozpin answered.

"Alright… but what does this have to do with what you want from _me_?"

"From time to time I might decide to send certain missions Ruby's way. The locality of those missions may coincide with certain activities that warrant… _investigation, _that requires a degree of subtlety that fully-license Huntsmen no longer possess due to notoriety. Before one goes to war, one must first send the scouts, not the troops."

"Shouldn't you be telling this to _Ruby _then? Ruby might see everyone equally, but I'm still the _New Guy_. Bottom rung on the ladder. I don't exactly have sway in how we run things on our ship, and I doubt Weiss would take kindly to being led along the nose by a Faunus. Sure, she's getting better, and she's growing up without her old man breathing down her neck trying to make her into another _him_, but old habits die hard, and we still argue from time-to-time. Honestly I'm surprised it was _Weiss _who saved my life instead of someone else," Jack stated.

"What I'm asking is a little… off-the-books, and Ruby doesn't need the added pressure so soon into the start of her career. She still has time to be a child, before becoming a Huntress."

"Sooo you decided to come to me because I haven't been a _child_ since I was nine years old? Because I already know what we're walking into?"

"In essence, yes," Ozpin replied with a nod. "You've been all over the world if your history with the Mission Boards has anything to say about it. You know the state of things better than everyone on your Team, because you don't draw knowledge from a single location."

"Then you're going to need to be a little more clear in what you're asking of me. You want me to do things off-the-books behind Ruby's back, while I'm still running missions alongside them? How is that supposed to work exactly if she isn't in-the-know about this?"

"I don't need you to be a private investigator or anything like that. If anything, I only need you to keep an ear to the ground, and an eye to the shadows, as you conduct yourself with Team Ruby like normal. In addition, I'm also asking to borrow your strength for what's coming, should I need it. There may also be other _errands _that require your attention, but I won't deliberately endanger your life. I'd like to stay on the Demon of Whitechapel's good side, after all," he said. If Jack was surprised he was known by that title, he certainly didn't show it. It wasn't exactly state secret or anything, but very few people would know that _he _was the "Demon of Whitechapel". Most assumed it was "a real fucking monster" like his uncle, or his "uncle", or even his father. Not someone who, at the time, was "just a kid" setting out for the first time.

"What _is _coming?" Jack asked as he got the gist of what Ozpin wanted. He basically wanted an extra set of feet on the ground, with eyes and ears fishing for any information that could provide a clue as to _what _he was worried about. The man was being really sparse with details, though that was likely so he'd have a degree of plausible deniability and not be made a target.

"I am not entirely certain, but I see the ripples in the water, small as they are. There's a storm on the horizon, but I don't know from where it comes, or when it will reach our borders. All I know is, this time of peace we've had since the Great War… someone wants to bring it to an end. And I don't think they'll do it gently."

"Hmmm… I see…" Jack hummed. "Alright. As long as these _investigations _of yours don't put Ruby anywhere she can get seriously hurt, I'm not opposed to doing a little legwork for you. That being said… I'm not going to do this pro-bono. That's just good business sense."

"I'd be disappointed if you did," Ozpin replied. "Those who agree to do something for nothing, are always the quickest to walk out when things get tough because there _is _nothing in it for them."

"It's a shame that people don't realize just how _shady _people who do things for "free" are," Jack shrugged. "People whose motivations are guided by coin, you know how far their loyalty goes. _Heroes _who do things "out of the kindness of their hearts", well, they aren't _completely _trustworthy when their life is on the line and they'd rather be elsewhere instead of dying for no reason."

"So then… What is it that you want?" Ozpin asked, knowing he now had Jack invested in this. "Money? Power? Influence? I could put in a good word for you but I can't exactly _give _you women."

"Most of Column B. I figure I'll get a little out of Column C just by working for you, even if it's by proxy and off-the-books. I can always get plenty of Column A on my own, there's more being printed every day, and it isn't like there's any shortage of work on the Mission Boards," Jack explained. "Also, I don't need any help of getting women. I can do that by myself."

"It would help if you were a little more specific in what you _wanted_. As long as it's reasonable, I'll compensate your services to the best of my abilities."

"Hmmm… How do I word this," Jack hummed as he drummed his fingers on his arm. "Beacon's home to the biggest library in the entire Kingdom, correct?"

"Yes. It's one of the largest information repositories in the entire world, actually. Why do you ask?"

"I want in. And I'm not talking the stuff you can get with any old library card," he said cutting off Ozpin before he could make a joke. "I want access to your top-shelf brand. Ancient secrets. Forbidden knowledge. The Devil's Arithmetic. If I'm not being clear enough… _knowledge _is what I seek. Knowledge that with time and effort that can become strength. Strength that the Council might not be comfortable ceding control of to someone else. You can keep your politics to yourself. What I want… is knowledge I won't find anywhere else."

"Why that _specifically?_" Ozpin asked. Most when approached by an authority figure for aid would've asked for gratuitous amounts of money, or influence that could make things go their way if they went accost with the law. Very few would've gone straight for _knowledge _because the benefits weren't as _immediate_ and you had to put your own time and effort in to cultivate it.

"I _felt _it when Glynda fought that Ursa Major, I could practically _taste _it. And I _know _that kind of stuff isn't something most people have access to, because the Council still needs an edge to keep the Hunter Union in line. If things are even half as bad as you _allude _them to be, then that can become a problem for what little family I have left in this world," Jack said crossing his arms. "Suffice it to say, that's a problem for me, and if _I _have a problem, then that means _you _have a problem. Do I make myself clear on that?"

"Your motivations have been crystal clear to me since I admitted you to my school, regardless of any lack of formal education," Ozpin replied sipping from his mug. "Very well, I'll grant you access. Please hand me your Scroll," he requested, Jack reaching over to his nightstand and passing his Scroll to the headmaster. Opening up his own Master Scroll, which gave him access to everything in the Academy without restriction, he placed Jack's atop it, the two synchronizing before a number of icons showing wirelessly downloading programs appeared around it. After a couple moments, a light blinked, and the process was complete. "There you go. I've slav-er, _synchronized_, your Scroll to mine," he said stopping himself from saying "slaved". "You now have special access to the part of the library normally reserved for faculty. When the lock on the door scans your Scroll, any records will show my own access codes, so unless someone sees you yourself enter, no-one will be aware of your access to such materials."

"Excellent," Jack hummed as he took back his Scroll. "I'm sure I can find a couple things for the rest of my Team as well. _Hmmm__… Maybe something to augment Ruby's cloak__… I suppose I could find a couple things to give Weiss' Glyphs some extra kick_… _Maybe a way for Blake's clones to move independently of herself_… _And maybe some strengthening Artes for Yang,"_ he muttered to himself before turning back to Ozpin. "Am I allowed to actually check any of it out, or does it have to stay in the room?"

"It'll have to stay in the room I'm afraid, but you _are _allowed to take notes for your own uses," Ozpin replied. "All I ask is that when you access the more… _unique _materials, that you exercise a degree of discretion in your movements. If it got out you'd been given special access to faculty-only sections of the library, that could make things… complicated."

"Don't worry, Ozpin. I know how to keep a secret."

"Oh, I'm sure you do… Jack the Ripper," Ozpin said making his way to the door.

"…Heh…" Jack chuckled after a momentary widening of his eyes. "Should've figured you'd know about _that_… Oz the All-Seeing."

"I honestly prefer 'The Great and Powerful', but that works too," Ozpin said in good humor as he cracked open the door. "You have a good night."

"Ya huh," Jack hummed as he rolled over in his bed.

_***GIANT SLAYER***_

**In the original draft, there wasn't the huge landscape-altering fight between Glynda and the Ursa Major, instead she smacked it back a couple times before the Vulture appeared as though Ozpin had known exactly when it was needed. Suffice it to say, I decided to majorly overhaul that, adding more fights and tension-following to it, since in the original draft, no-one almost died at the end. I also didn't think to add Ozpin's talk with Jack until later, but seeing how this topic was of a rather _sensitive _nature, it only made sense for Ozpin to approach him when he's alone. There's a GIANT library at Beacon, yet they didn't learn anything THAT new when they had all year to access that sort of stuff; that's why Virgil wants in through the "secret door". In short, pretty much everything after Jack's "boss fight" was re-written, and I'm pretty glad I did because this is _much _better.  
**

**On note of the Grimm that Jaune killed being an Ursa **_**Minor**_**, while the (bigger) one after that was a Major INSTEAD, while (again) in canon the one Jaune killed at that point _was _a Major… Not gonna lie… That idea came from My Little Pony. You got me. I'm a brony. I admit it. Not a **_**hardcore **_**brony, I'm actually **_**way **_**behind on the episodes, but I'm willing to admit that in a nostalgic kinda way, I enjoy the show. Reminds me of when cartoons did **_**not **_**cater to the "shortbus kids" with their crappy animation and over-**_**OVER**_**-simplified storylines.**

**Stepping away from Hasbro's Deceptacon-slaying ponies and back to the AN…**

**On note of the "Hollowing", and "spirit energy through the lips", yes, those were Bleach and Yuyu Hakusho references respectively. Didn't get too far into Bleach before I lost interest altogether, while Yuyu Hakusho is one of my favorite anime from my youth (wow I sound old). These aren't being shoehorned in, I had planned for these kinds of references and story-elements to be introduced to the Giant-Slayer Lore prior to publishing the first chapter, I just never thought I'd introduce them this soon to the story. I'm pretty stoked about how things turned out, though, and I wonder if anyone will figure out the _third _reference to the set I've made.**

**As for what Jack did where he modified the "elemental properties" of his Semblance, and turned his "Kaio-Ken" into... something else... THAT was inspired by what Blake did in RWBY Volume 2 Chapter 11 "No Brakes", where Blake used Dust Ammo to turn her "Shadows" into clones of additional tangibility with properties like Fire, Stone, and Ice; The biggest difference of course, was alluded to by the "Blake has a Flamethrower, Yang has a Rocket" metaphor I discussed earlier. As for the _form _that Jack's usage of Red Dust for Dust Synergy took, that was inspired by a character from One Punch Man****, one of the funniest/most-awesome anime of last year by far, and one of the best ongoing manga I've read in a while. I find it very hard **_**not **_**to enjoy the inner turmoil of a man who's become so powerful he kills everything with one punch, as well as the "politics" of a hero-for-hire economy where superheroes (with varying literal and _moral _degrees of "super") are commonplace.**

**Unlike Superman who's a total **_**bullshit **_**character****, Saitama **_**worked **_**for his power, and though he lost his hair, the man's got **_**GODS**_** living inside his clenched fists. Not **_**literally**_**, but it definitely seems that way when he 1-Hit-KOd what was essentially the Colossal Titan in episode 1. Also it's in the song, much like how "Super Saiyan" is part of Yang's theme song.  
**

**Now I'm rambling...**

**Anyway, I hope this rewrite of the chapter is well-received, and that you leave Comments, Questions, and even Concerns in the Review window down below.  
**


	27. Getting Back Up

_***Tap*Tap***_

"_Nnngh… Goaway…"_

_***Tap*Tap* *Tap-tap-tap***_

"_Five more minutes… Sebastian…"_

_***Tap-tap* *Tap-tap* *Tap-tap-tap***_

"Ugh… I'm up… I'm up…" Weiss groaned as she yawned cutely, stretching her arms above her head, before she threw her legs over the side of the bed and made her way to the window. Cracking it open and letting the morning air in, Weiss blinked and rubbed her eyes a few times before yelping out- "Ja-_mmmph_!" before a hand clamped over her mouth.

"_Ssssssh! Do you want to wake everyone up?" _the person on the windowsill asked.

"_Jack…? What're you doing here?" _Weiss said, honestly surprised to see him.

"_I figured I'd sneak back in and surprise everyone," _Jack said whispered with a smile. _"Also, I _did _say I was going to meditate until I was well-enough to sneak out, in case you don't remember."_

"_I thought you were _joking_!" _Weiss hissed. _"And why didn't you just use the door?"_

" _. . . Huh. Didn't think of that," _Jack hummed as he tapped his chin before looking around. _"Why is Yang in my bed?" _he asked seeing the blond sprawled out under his bedsheets, drooling into his pillow and a pale leg draped out the side of the covers near the floor.

"_She said she wanted to keep it warm for you for when you got back," _Weiss answered, a slight flush on her face. Ever since she'd kissed him, Auric Transfusion or not, she'd been blushing whenever she thought about him, or his stuff, or Yang _touching _Jack's stuff. _'Ugh! Why did I _do _there?' _she thought with a flush.

"_Huh… Though I think it'll be kinda hard to surprise her if I crawl on in," _Jack surmised. _"I suppose I could sit in a chair in the corner, but that might make me look like some kind of creeper."_

"_Well, um… you could… I dunno… wait here with _me_?" _the heiress suggested as she gestured to her own bed.

"_Weiss… Are you trying to seduce me?" _the Faunus asked, the heiress stammering and sputtering. _"Don't worry, I'm just joshin' ya. I know you'd rather be with another Human than a Faunus. Nothing wrong with that. Everyone has their preferences. And at least for you, it's slightly less racist than when we first met."_

" _. . . Are you going to come in or not?" _the heiress asked with a flush on her face.

"_As long as you're offering. Let me just grab my pajamas and I'll-"_

"_You can sleep in your shirt and boxers if you want. I… I don't mind," _she stammer out demurely.

" _. . . Ooooh, I get it," _Jack hummed with a knowing smile. _"You want to see the look on Yang's face when she sees me in your bed with my pants on the floor. So you can get back at her for all the teasing she's done, right?"_

"_R-Right," _the heiress answered. Jack shrugged his shoulders as he turned away from her, slipping out of his jumpsuit, revealing the black T-shirt he wore and the dark green boxers he wore under his pants, as well as the scars littering his arms and legs. The heiress scooted over towards the left, giving Jack some space on her right to crawl into the bed. _"Y-You're really warm," _Weiss realized as heat flooded through the covers.

"_Faunus have a slightly higher body temperature than Humans," _Jack answered as he laid his head back on the heiress' pillow. It smelled a bit like peppermint actually, though if that was because of her shampoo, or her drool soaked into the pillowcase, or just his own natural musk, he wasn't sure. _"So… how do you want to do this?"_

"_Y-You can be the big spoon. That's what you do the most with Yang, isn't it?"_

"…_Alright. But if you get uncomfortable, just say so and I'll roll over," _Jack said as he positioned himself behind her, wrapping his arms loosely around her stomach. Weiss in turn pressed her back to his chest, putting her head under his chin and moving his hands to her sternum above her chest, her own delicate fingers ghosting over scarred and calloused digits that she felt through her sleeping gown.

'_I c-can't believe I'm actually doing this…' _the heiress thought to herself. _'Wait, what am I embarrassed for? I'm doing this to get back at Yang for all her teasing. Yeah! There's nothing in-intimate about this,' _she told herself as she closed her eyes and basked in the Faunus's scent, and the warmth that spread through her back and into her body.

The two shifting against one another to get a little more comfortable, the heiress' eyes suddenly snapped open as she felt something rubbing up against her derriere, slowly growing larger as a much _stronger _heat began to radiate against her body.

"_Sorry. I can't help it," _Jack apologized into her ear, his hot breath washing across her lobe.

"_D-Don't apologize. Arousal is only _natural _when holding a pretty girl in your arms," _she said haughtily. Or at least that's how she wanted it to sound. _"Pyrrha isn't the _only _four-time winner around here. I earned "The Fairest of Them All" four times back in Atlas before I entered Beacon, after all."_

"_Huh. I didn't know you entered beauty pageants. I bet you were a real cutie when you smiled for the judges," _the Faunus complimented before turning back to more serious issues. _"We can stop if this is making you uncomfortable. I could always bunch up the covers or something."_

"_I'm a big girl, Jack. And it isn't like I've never had a guy lusting over me before."_

"_I doubt any of those guys ever found themselves in _this _position."_

"_Maybe not, but we're teammates. Someday we may have to sleep like this… To preserve _body _heat," _the heiress argued.

"…_Can't argue with that logic," _Jack shrugged as he felt the heiress lean more against him, wrapping his arms a little more tightly around her as he sniffed her hair. _"You smell nice…" _he whispered, before realizing he'd said that out loud._ "Sorry if that's weird. Meant for that to be an _internal _monologue."_

"_Its fine," _Weiss sighed with a yawn as she shifted back against him, trying not to flush at the "flashlight" under her covers. _"Go back to sleep… the others should be up in a few hours. Wouldn't want to wake them up too soon."_

"_Very well. Goodnight, Milady," _Jack said as he closed his eyes.

'_M-Milady…?' _Weiss repeated to herself with a flush on her face. _'A-At least he isn't calling me _Snow Angel _or _Ice Queen_,' _she reasoned with herself, finding the nickname kinda sweet, and _flattering _even if he didn't mean it super-literally. Those thoughts in mind, Weiss drifted off to sleep. Or rather, she _tried_, but the heat radiating from down below and running up her bum was the slightest bit distracting. _"G…Goodnight, Jack," _the heiress whispered to him as she closed her eyes, interlacing her fingers with his, a look on contentment on her face as she allowed the scent of the forest to overwhelm her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Weiss Schnee, second-born child to the Schnee dynasty, had all her life slept on the most expensive beds money could buy. The frame of her bed was made with Northern White Oak, otherwise known as Atlesian Ivory, a type of wood so rare a special permit was needed merely to _work _on it. Within that bedframe were gold and crystalline Dust accents, ensuring the bed was always warm in the winter, and cool in the summer, the headboard emblazoned with animals of the cold north. The pillowcases were 360 thread count Vacuan Cotton filled with Northern Sea Duck down, covered in hand-stitched snowflakes. The sheets were a Mistrali Silk, harvested from Heavenly Silkworms, while the comforter was a Sateen weave, the curtains around her bed also made of Silk with custom monogramming, custom stitching, and hand-made tassels for an added element of luxury, filtering in light for a prismatic array of colors off the rising sun.

Even the _sleeping bag_ she had used in the Ballroom before Initiation was top-of-the-line. The Superlight 15/-9 was the highest-priced, and premier, sleeping bag on the open market for any hiker or aspiring Hunter. Insulated with a water-repellant 800-fill ProDown and crafted with a slimmer performance cut that features overlapping baffles to conserve heat, it could shelter someone from temperatures as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit, -9 degrees Ceicius. On top of a whole list of other features, hers had been custom-tailored for extra comfort without sacrificing storability, colored a baby blue with the Schnee insignia imprinted on it.

Yet even after all this pampering she had grown accustomed to, to her memory, Weiss couldn't remember a more-refreshing bout of sleep then she'd had then since she was a little girl, crawling into her mom's bed because her father was away on business and couldn't say she was "too old" for something "so utterly juvenile". Maybe it was the earthy, _woodsy _scent of his natural musk, or the way his broad… muscular arms and shoulders would envelop her in warmth, pressing her body against his-

'_No! Get a hold of yourself!' _the heiress told herself, furrowing her brow as she slowly woke. _'You invited Jack into your bed for strictly non-platonic reasons! And no other!'_

Breathing out through her nose, the heiress attempted to get in a little more sleep before having to wake up. It _was _an exhausting day yesterday, and it was a Saturday _today_, so she had a perfectly valid excuse to loaf around a little bit. Especially when a certain someone wasn't around to say that loafing was "unbecoming of one of your station".

'_It really has been a long time… since I've felt this way,' _Weiss noticed, thinking about how the last time she'd felt this safe, this _secure _when she slept, was when she was last in her mother's arms before… _"Hmmm… Maybe _this _is why Ruby always looks so comfy when she's with him…" _she muttered to herself as she hugged Jack's hands to her chest. _"Maybe I should get into the habit of this too…" _she muttered to herself with a small smile.

"I'm mature-enough to share, but Yang will probably need a little more convincing to give him up."

"_I'll cross that bridge when I come to it…" _Weiss returned. _' . . . !'_

Light-blue eyes snapping open as she realized someone had answered back, the heiress found herself face-to-face-to-face-to-face with her three other teammates as they stood over her bed. Ruby had a happy smile on her face, Blake was blushing a bit and scribbling stuff down in a little black notebook, and Yang… she looked like the cat that ate the canary.

"Hey Weiiiiiis. Whatcha doooin'?" Yang asked, her brow twitching as she looked down on the Human/Faunus pair sleeping in the same bed.

"Um… You know… Sleepin'," she answered weakly.

"Sleeping, huh? Well then, might I ask what that is behind you?" the blond brawler asked as she pointed to Jack. She did _not _look pleased.

"That… would be my teammate," she said looking over her shoulder at Jack, who was just beginning to wake up, Jade-colored eyes regarding everyone in the room.

"I see I see. So tell me, why is Jack in _your _bed instead of mine… I mean _his_," Yang said jabbing a thumb at the other end of the room.

"Well, Jack couldn't very well get back into his bed with you sprawled _all over _it, so he required a more-open alternative," Weiss answered haughtily, in an attempt to regain her momentum.

"I… see…" Yang returned, her brow twitching. "So Jack…" she said looking Jack's way. "When'd you become interested in the _other_ white meat?"

"Oh… for a while now," Jack answered aloofly, playing along with the heiress.

"You can't deny he has good taste," Weiss returned.

"Oh _does _he now? I wasn't aware you'd gone that _far _in your relationship…" Yang said with a grin, smirking at the way Weiss' face had reddened with the insinuation.

"I… I mean we…" the heiress stammered, the blond lauding the success of her counterattack before the door to Team RWBBY's room was knocked upon. Like clockwork, Ruby walked over to get it as she had for the three Saturdays prior, greeting.

"Good morning, Jaune. Are you here to see Weiss?"

"Why yes, Ruby, as a matter of fact, I am," Jaune said with a very chipper smile on his face. "Is she here by any chance?"

"Well, Weiss _is _here, but I don't think you want to-" Ruby said before Jaune pushed her out of the way, barging into the room with a bright smile on his face.

"Hey, Weiss. I was wondering if there was any chance you wanted to go to town with me today. Maybe catch a nice breakfast, and then a nice walk along the beeeeea…ch…"

Whatever the blond was about to say died on his mouth the moment he saw the state the Weiss was in. Her long white hair messed up, she was flush against the chest of her teammate, Jack Braxton, whose hands were interlaced atop her budding bosom, their fingers intertwined. What's more, her head was tucked under his chin, the Faunus' nose in the crown of her hair.

"Hey there, Jaune. Did you need Weiss for something?" Jack asked.

"I… well I um…"

_***Clop-clop-clop-clop-clop-clop-clop***_

"Huh…" Weiss hummed as Jaune scampered back to his room, failing to articulate an answer. "Thank you, Jack. You just helped me kill two birds with one stone this morning."

"Aren't you worried about rumors spreading around?" the Faunus asked, realizing Weiss was going to probably use this occurrence to get Jaune off her back for the day. Almost every Saturday like clockwork, the blond Arc had attempted to invite her out into town; on a _date_. Only _this _time, Weiss had headed him off at the pass.

"I don't think Jaune would want to _talk _about this, much less acknowledge it _did _happen," Blake commented. "If anything he'll try to pretend it was a bad dream. Like the _kiss _you two shared yesterday."

"I was saving his _life_, thank you very much!" the heiress retorted as she jumped up.

"She's right you know," Jack stated as he sat up. "She saved my life yesterday. The nature of our lip-touching is completely non-platonic in nature. And if it were _her _whose Soul was Hollowing, I'd have done the same."

"Do you actually have the _control _for something like that?" Ruby asked.

"How do you think I learned Blood Artes? You need a _lot _of control to pull that off. Especially when you're practically delirious from the pain. _And _light-headed. Though that might be more about _concentration _than control when it comes to the blood-loss…" he went off on a tangent.

"That still sounds like Black Magic to me," Ruby hummed.

"Anything that goes against societal convention is always considered _dark_, even if it isn't necessarily evil in intent," Blake stated as she closed her little black book, the last couple words being **Love Triangle? **as a passive thought for the narrative.

"Exactly," Jack returned. "Anyway, if was kind of you to give me a place to sleep until the others woke up. Thanks, Weiss."

"Y-You're welcome," the heiress returned as she pushed the sheets aside, almost immediately missing the warmth of her bed. Jack, pulling his pants back on, gathered his toiletries and made his way out to the bathroom down the hall. Weiss prompt-as ever made her way to the ensuite, followed from behind by her blond peer, who raised her hand to bar the other two entry.

"Hey Weiss," Yang said as the heiress proceeded to brush her teeth.

"Yes?" the heiress asked as she spit the foam into the sink. A moment later and Yang leaned into her ear, looking around for anyone listening even though it was only _them _in the smaller room.

"_In case you ever decide to let Jack sample the _other-_other white meat~" _the blond said as she reached into her drawer of toiletries. _"Be sure to take this," _she said handing a small package to Weiss. Looking down, she saw a vacuum-sealed herb that looked like the triple moon symbol, essentially three spirals joined in the middle, colored bright pink with little blue veins running along each leaf.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-Why do you even _have_ this?!"the heiress gawped at the Maidens' Herb in her hand. It was a **Capture Level 3 **ingredient that prevented pregnancy in the following twenty four hours after consumption. The premier contraceptive distributed solely by the IGO, it was a little more expensive than the _conventional _contraceptives, but it had the highest success rating with no negative side effects, and was completely over-the-counter on top of being completely organic. Some even said it increased "sensitivity" after being taken, and was used in some foods to bolster the flavor of some cooking.

"You can never be too safe," Yang said cheekily as she put it in Weiss' drawer. Toward the back where no-one would accidentally see it. "Don't worry, I have more."

"You have _more_?!" she gawped, seeing many more vacuum-sealed herbs in the Yang's drawer.

"You can never be too safe," the blond repeated with a cheeky grin on her face, the heiress blushing bright red and trembling, Yang having gotten back at her for what happened that morning and _then _some.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Shortly after, Teams RWBBY and JNPR had all bathed and gotten dressed, convening for a morning breakfast. Without the mad scramble to study for finals, everyone was much more relaxed, eating their comfort food without care. Ruby stuffed her face with waffles and chocolate chip cookies smothered in syrup, chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream, a tall glass of chocolate milk at her side. Weiss had a nice salad with a slice omelet mixed in, a glass of grape juice in place of wine. Blake had a tuna fish omelet and a tall glass of whole milk. Yang had waffles with powdered sugar and syrup, sausage, and bacon, _lots _of bacon. Jack's breakfast consisted of a country-fried steak, bacon, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and you guessed it, bacon, a tall glass of orange juice at his side. Jaune idly picked at a bowl of cereal, a glass of milk untouched at his side. Nora stuffed herself with pancakes stacked as high as she was tall, smothered in the extra Red Sap she'd procured the day before, a tall glass of 2% milk. Pyrrha had the picture-perfect definition of breakfast, sunny-side up eggs amidst hash browns, strips of bacon, a bowl of piping hot oatmeal, and a tall glass of orange juice. Ren had a relaxed breakfast of eggs and toast, a glass of tea at his side.

Everyone was eating happily, chattering away, save for one. Jaune only stared morosely into his bowl of now-soggy cereal, sighing tiredly and cutting through the good mood abound.

"Sigh _louder _why don't you. I don't think they quite heard you in Vacuo," Weiss said dismissively as she elegantly dabbed the corners of her mouth with her napkin.

_*SIIIIIGH…* _Jaune groaned.

"What's eatin' _him_?" Nora asked.

"Jaune's upset because Weiss shot him down. Like she did the _last _three times he asked her out on Saturday," Ren said biting into his toast.

"There… there…" Pyrrha bit out as she pat the blond's shoulder. It was a _little _hard not to be petty when the object of your affection continued to endlessly chase another woman in a fruitless endeavor to earn her favor.

"Yes. _That's _why he's upset," Jack said looking like the cat that caught the canary. Technically he was half-Jaguar Faunus, so the metaphor _sorta _fit.

"Quite," Blake chuckled.

"So… Who's gonna pay for that Saber Rabbit-skinned rug?" Nora asked.

"You _really _want that fancy rug, don't you?"

"I wouldn't call it _fancy_. More like _rustic_," Ren corrected as he drank his tea.

"I still find it weird that you're so-completely fixated on that thing," Weiss stated.

"Says the girl whose father has a polar bear-skin rug in his study," Jack said plainly.

"How did you know about that!?" Weiss gawped. "I never told you!"

" . . . Okay _wow_, I was actually _joking_, and, holy _shit_, I'm on fire lately," the Faunus returned, the heiress lighting up in embarrassment.

"Rustic rugs aside…" Pyrrha stated as she picked at her food. "Jack, where exactly did you learn to use Dust Synergy? Techniques of that nature are hardly ever used anymore due to the risks behind it."

"Out in Skyrim, the risks are mitigated largely by the fact that the Nords are made of sterner stuff than people coddled inside the safety of the other Kingdoms," the Faunus answered. "High-risk techniques are more common there because they can actually _handle _it."

"You certainly talk them _up _a lot whenever you bring them up," Yang said resting her chin on her hands with a grin.

"More like I have a profound respect for them," Jack rebuked.

"Because they're _strong_?" Jaune asked.

"…_No_, you insensitive hick!" Jack snapped back in offense. "I respect them because they actually have their _shit _together!" he said slamming his fist on the table. "Everywhere I've ever gone the last five years, everyone walked on eggshells around me like I was a rabid dog that was going to bite their heads off! I've been accused of crimes I didn't commit more times than I could count, had my then-current place of residence ransacked repeatedly, and had to fight off lynch mobs on numerous occasions. Skyrim is the only place that actually treated me like a _person_, instead of a _war criminal!_" he growled, causing everyone to flinch back. _*SIIIIIGH* _"Sorry. I took that last bout of racial profiling a little _personal_."

"What _did _you do while you were there?" Ruby asked inquisitively.

" . . . Let's just say that after the murder of my mother and baby sister, I needed to… get my head back on straight," the Faunus answered. "My Aura was completely out of whack to the point that I was a danger to myself and everyone around me, so I needed to undergo a lot of special training. From time to time, my teacher would send me down the mountain in order to interact with the locals. All my life, I grew up on stories about how Faunus were discriminated against, treated like second-class citizens simply because they were different. Hell, the first time my mother took me into a heavily-populated town, some jackass threw a bottle at my head because some guy with features like mine killed his brother during the last war," he said lifting up his bangs. A wave of gasps sounded out across the table when a cluster of scars near the right side of his hairline were revealed. "I wasn't even eight years old at the time, so, you can probably imagine how surprised I was when everyone there accepted me with open arms. They didn't treat me like a rabid animal, or a delinquent, or a mass murdering waiting to happen. They treated me like a person, an _equal_, instead of an animal. They treated _every _Faunus like an equal. And the fact that nowhere else does that makes me sick to my stomach sometime," he said rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Aside from the inhospitable terrain and the ravenous animals, the place sounds like a _paradise _for any Faunus that's been discriminated against," Blake said in a bit of awe. "If the rest of the world is as bad as you said it was for someone like you, why did you never go back?"

" . . . Because I needed to avenge my murdered family, and I couldn't do that if I was holed up on the other side of the world," Jack answered, the table going silent for several minutes.

" . . . I take it that, to that end, you became a Sweeper in order to access information a normal person wouldn't be privy to?" Weiss asked.

"Pretty much, yeah."

" . . . So did you ever eighty-six the guys that did your mom and sister in?" Nora asked.

" . . . Do you really wanna know?" the Faunus asked looking up at her cryptically.

"I-"

"_No_. No, we do not need to," Ren said clapping a hand over Nora's mouth.

"Jack… I'm sorry I brought up such a sensitive subject," Pyrrha apologized.

"It's fine. I actually feel a little better after getting that off my chest," Jack said brushing his bangs back down. "That being said, I don't like talking about my time in Skyrim all willy-nilly, because every time I do… I'm reminded of what I gave up to pursue my mother's killers, and an equality that so many Faunus never get to see… So in the future, could you try to pick your words a little more tactfully?"

"I… Yes, I understand," Pyrrha said going back to pick at her food. She honestly never _considered _what it'd be like to _be _a Faunus. To be the subject of such indiscriminate hate for no other reason than looking different. It was like every time she talked to Jack, he'd chip and pick away at her ideal view of the world around her, like poking holes in rose-tinted glasses she didn't even know she was wearing.

"So… Anyone have any plans for until classes start up again?" Ruby asked trying to change the subject.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Oh my goddess, this really _is _becoming a trend," Jack realized as he stood on the dorm's roof an hour later. Once again, he'd been called out via Scroll message for what he suspected was a very hard-hitting private one-on-one conversation; this time by Pyrrha who had likely gotten the number from Jaune, who in turn had gotten it from Ruby.

The smell of designer soaps, shampoo, and high-end weapon polish wafting out into the air, Jack looked over his shoulder to see Pyrrha Nikos stepping onto the roof. From a purely objective standpoint, he noted that her Beacon uniform did… really _noticeable _things to her curves, accentuating her chest, hips, and long statuesque legs a great deal. Honestly, if the skirts were any shorter and the shirts any tighter, he'd think the tailor that designed Beacon's uniforms was some kinda pervert with a high schooler fetish.

"Hey Pyrrha, how's it hanging?"

"I'm fine," the red-head replied. "I'm glad you could come up on such short notice."

"Well, I don't know what the next set of courses are going to be, so it isn't like I can study ahead or anything," Jack replied with a shrug of his shoulder. "Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well…" she said wringing her hands. "There's something I have to confess to you."

"If it's that you've been fantasizing about a Devil's Threesome between you, Jaune, and myself… I'd rather not hear it."

"N-No! Nothing like that!" the red-head squawked as she flushed red.

"Ah, I'm just screwin' with ya. You just make it so easy," the Faunus chuckled. "What do you need to say?"

"Jack… When I was a little girl… I could make paperclip figurines do the cancan and the robot from across the room with my Semblance."

"…Not sure what this has to do with _me_, but go on."

"When you were dying, and your Soul was Hollowing… I _had _the kind of control it would've taken to save you… but I hesitated," the red-head choked out. "I wanted my first kiss to be special… and even after all this, I still wanted it to be with Jaune. I… I was selfish… Sure, Weiss stepped up to the plate and saved you, but if she didn't… I don't think I could've brought myself to do it in her stead… So I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . " _*Siiiiigh* _"There, there," Jack said as he pat the girl atop the head, her eyes widening in surprise at the brotherly gesture. Strangely enough, she found herself _basking _in it, leaning into the unfamiliar, but not _unwelcome_, sensation of non-platonic affection. "You had a moment of weakness. Everyone does. It must've taken a lot for you to admit that."

"It hurts… It hurts so much… knowing I was willing to throw away your life for a few moments of my own happiness."

"…I won't deny I'm slightly insulted by that…" Jack admitted, and the red-head wilted a little under the weight of his words. "But I'd be a hypocrite if I held it against you. Anything you've done, I've probably done way worse, so don't worry about it," he said stroking her head.

"But I… But I…"

"Pyrrha. I think learning about these ugly little parts of ourselves is just a part of growing up. Everyone has their dark side. Mine's bigger than most, no doubt about it. And having a dark side doesn't make you_ evil_. It's what you _do _with that darkness, that's the important thing here."

"You make it sound like you're that much older than me," Pyrrha chuckled.

"A day out there," Jack said tilting his head toward the horizon in the distance, "Is worth a week in this place. Once you step away from the cushy lifestyle and start _roughing _it, then you'll understand, and realize just how much _those people _take for granted."

"Which people?"

"…_All_ of them. Everyone that goes on like the Grimm don't exist, or it isn't their problem. Everyone who thinks the universe revolves around them, and that _their _petty squabbles with one another actually matter, or just the ones that laze about and do absolutely nothing for the benefit of mankind," he listed off. "And let's not forget the _wars _you'll see someday. If not tomorrow. Or _today _even."

"It's been a time of peace since the Faunus Rights Revolution ended. I don't _think _there will be any wars any time soon."

"Ah, but you see, that's where you're wrong," Jack rebuked. "War takes _many_ forms. You get up in the morning, you get into your shitty _car_, and you see a rich CEO, who works half as hard as you do, drive down the street in his _Porche_. "Class War." You make it to work, and you find out that the annual drug test is today, and you _just_ so happened to take a puff of your one-hitter a couple nights ago before dinner with your husband's _awful _parents. "Drug War." But then, you find out that the only ones being called in for testing are your black and Faunus co-workers. "Race War." Then, you try and post about it on your Facepages, and then all your friends start arguing about what's right and what's wrong. "Flame War." You finally get home, and you decide to relax by watching a program about: "Who gets the box?" "What's in the box?" "How much is what's in the box worth?" "Storage Wars." So you see, Pyrrha, the world itself is a purveyor of war. It doesn't _like _war. It. Loves. War."

"Wow… that's… very _descriptive,_" Pyrrha said as she put images to the Faunus' words, placing _herself _in the one person's shoes and realizing how different a lifestyle she could've led had she not wanted to be a gladiator as a child, and then a Huntress.

"Yeah, well, when you go bounty-hunting in taverns or try to follow up on rumors for in-demand Ingredients, you tend to pick up a couple of things," the Faunus replied casually. "You would not _believe _how loose-lipped people get once they have a little alcohol in their system. Or even half the _stories _you'll hear when people vent their sorrows."

"You… could fill a _book _with stories like that, couldn't you?" Pyrrha asked.

"I dunno. _Probably_?" Jack shrugged.

"…Jack?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you… Thank you for forgiving my selfishness."

"Hey, like I said before, everyone has their dark side," Jack said once again rubbing the crown of her head. "For example, if it were _me _that Cardin had managed to blackmail somehow, I'd have left him to die at the hands, paws, or otherwise unspecified appendages of the Grimm. Probably would've shot him in the leg for good measure, but, you know, that's neither here nor there."

"I… see…" Pyrrha deadpanned, realizing she did _not _want to get on his bad side. _Ever_. We're talking about a guy who could get Nora onto the same page about… _anything _really. _Including _murder.

"So, is that all you needed? I was thinking of going to the library later today, but if you need more of my time, I can set some of my schedule aside."

"No, I've gotten everything off my chest. You have fun in the library."

"When you go to the library, you don't go there for fun. It's all-business in there," Jack said with a serious expression. "Libraries are for _reading_."

"_THANK you!" _Ren's voice sounded from over the lip of the roof.

"_PANCAKES!" _Nora yelped. Like every time she was jolted awake.

"Oh, I see," Pyrrha hummed. "I never realized you took books so seriously. Here I thought that was _Blake's _thing."

"Hey, I'm _more _than a pretty face, you know," Jack said with a smile before walking off. His back turned to her, Pyrrha opened her mouth, hesitated, before opening it up again.

"Jack!" she called out, walking towards him when she had his attention. "If… _If _you _had become the leader of Team Juniper instead of Jaune do you think we could've been… friends?" _she whispered to him. Last thing she needed was for someone to get the wrong idea.

"I don't see why we can't be friends _now_," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders, Pyrrha's eyes widening before she nodded her head.

"Yeah… I guess you're right," she nodded, realizing they _were _friends. "To friendship," she said extending her hand toward him, the Faunus chuckling as he took the hand in her own and gave it a firm shake.

"To friendship," he replied.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Beacon's library was truly a marvel in its own right. Spanning around the length of an entire football field, the massive arching ceiling gave off a rather _humbling _feeling to those walking through it, large holographic banners "hanging" from the rafters and giving the space a vibe similar to that of a royal hall of old. The architecture reminiscent of a bygone age, the walls were a soft cream color that was minimally distracting, while large windows running along all sides of the building allowed natural light to flood in, breathing life into this academic environment. The center aisle of the room, with a warm orange carpeting, was wide open allowing plenty of foot traffic and preventing congestion, large white tables running parallel to each bookshelf, which was colored a rustic red. The shelves themselves were so tall and contained so many books, that rumor had it the open-air second floor had to be built _around _them, merely so people could reach the top without risk of falling, and so they would not tip over. At the base of the shelves on each floor were holographic interfaces, which were slaved to the electronic tags set into every book in the library upon admission into its hallowed halls.

While completely vacant of first-year Huntsmen-in-Training, the first-years of all _other_ occupations were scrambling about, filling their heads, and schoolbags, with knowledge for the upcoming term. The higher up you went in the hierarchy, the fewer of those students you would find, as some came into ownership of their own more-specialized materials, or were out in the real world earning money, school credit, and above all else, consumer confidentiality for their fiscal futures. While there was a definite **"No talking." **policy, there were _just _enough muted murmurs to stop the place from feeling completely dead, but still hushed enough that it maintained a silent dignity.

'_Damn, this place is huge,' _Jack thought as he walked down the center aisle, taking everything in. Even if he spent every waking minute of the rest of his days in this place, he doubted he could read even close to _half _of all these tomes, let alone all of them. _'Alright, Ozpin. Let's see if you stayed true to your word,' _he said heading towards the end of the library opposite the solitary entrance.

At the far end of the library, similar to the front, were both stairs and elevators to the top floor, while the restrooms were located _only _on the far side of the massive room. There were also flights of stairs going _down_, which Jack took to the library's basement floor. The space down below was much more solitary than that above, both sides of the long-running room lined with private booths, some whose windows were transparent, while others were polarized for privacy.

'_I _doubt _I'm the first person who ever thought to use those rooms for _social experiments,_' _the Faunus thought to himself, honestly expecting to hear whimpering or moaning from under one of the doors.

But alas, he did not, and he made his way to the other end of the hall, the most-isolated part of the library. Waiting for him was a standing wall, a digital map displaying which of the private booths were available, which were not, and which ones were reserved for later times in the day. However, Jack paid no mind to that, instead opting to walk _around _the standing wall, coming upon a single solitary door that looked ancient, yet had modern security measures flanking it. The door was heavy oak, decorated with black iron gothic accents reinforcing it.

'_Oz, don't fail me now,' _Jack said placing his Scroll on the pedestal to the right of the door. Red lights blinking on in one, two, three, moments later the trio of them changed to green, and the sound of large bolts retracting sounded from the door. Taking hold of the handle, Jack honestly expected the ancient-looking door to creak, yet thankfully, it did not. However what he _did _find unusual, was that as opposed to the drywall and carpeting of the more-modern structure, just beyond the threshold were hardwood steps and cobblestone walls, a long spiral staircase descending into the bowels of the earth. _'Where angels fear to tread…' _

Inhaling deeply through his nose, the Faunus crossed the threshold, closing the door behind him. The moment he did, all along the right wall, eerie Dust Lamps surrounded by halos of golden light came on all along the way, pushing back the darkness. Steeling himself against not the darkness, but what might be lying in wait, Jack made his way down the steps, his footsteps letting out small echoes. Then, after descending many countless steps, Jack saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Making his way toward it, the light seemed to intensify as he neared it, forced to cover his eyes as he crossed the threshold.

Then… upon passing the curtain of light… it suddenly dimmed. Opening his eyes, Jack first noted that while it wasn't _nearly _as tall as the library above, nor even as large, it wasn't any less grand.

The room had large pillars interspersed along the sides and down the center of the room holding the ceiling up, Dust Lamps giving the place a strange _homey _feel despite being so far underground. Lining the sides of the walls and forming aisles were countless bookshelves, some styled differently than others as though they'd been plucked from private collections all across the world. Also, as opposed to the books upstairs which had all been given more-durable electronically-tagged bindings, there were repositories of all sorts lining the shelves, each different from the next in their original binding. There were hardback books, journals, books bound in leather, and even _scrolls, _honest-to-goodness paper, silk, and even _papyrus _scrolls making their homes in the shelves. Down the center aisle were _singular _tables, much more interspersed than up above, inert Dust Lamps sitting upon them, only lighting up when Jack poured some Aura into their bases.

Slowly breathing in the air, expecting it to be stale, strangely enough, it was not. Walking a little ways down, he saw doors leading further away from the main room. Going to the nearest door and opening it, he saw more cobblestone-walled halls, a single brighter lantern on the far end, and four rooms on each side. Looking into each one, he saw humble quarters in each, home to a bed on the left, a desk on the right, a table for dining across from the door. In all honesty, the vibe gave off a _dungeon-y _kinda feel, as though this place actually _had _been a dungeon in the ancient past, but had now become a scholar's paradise after a bit of remodelling.

Checking the other doors on the left wall of the below-ground library, Jack found small humble quarters almost exactly identical in nature to the others. Deciding to forsake the right-side wall, Jack made his way to the very back of this space. Strangely enough, the area brightened considerably, crystals not necessarily _Dust _in origin lighting up the space as though he were above ground. There were shelves with old-fashioned plates, cups and silverware, cast iron pots and pans, hand-pumps for water into large basins, cast iron stoves, and even brick-hewn ovens making everything look old-fashioned. The only modern appliances were a couple refrigerators hooked up to a separate generator fueled by Gold Dust, though opening them up, Jack recoiled upon the discovery of several items _way _beyond their expiration date. One of them even rose up and hissed at him, the Faunus slamming the door shut and bracing it shut with a nearby chair, the look on his face saying- "Fuck this shit!" or "Nope!" or even just "AW HELL NO!"

"Well… I guess anyone using this place is expected to bring their own food," Jack said to himself as he decided to make his way back to the front. His footsteps echoing through the halls, it slowly, but surely, dawned on him just how _big _this fucking dungeon was.

Unlike above-ground where all the books were electronically tagged for ease-of-finding, there were _no _indicating signs of _any _sort of order for these texts. They weren't arranged in alphabetical order, or by subject, or even by nationality of _origin_. Hell, half of them that he poked into as he made his way to the back in the room were in languages he couldn't even _read_, much less understand. And then there was… well…

Knowledge was neither good nor evil. It was only how it was _used _that gave those inconsequential terms to them. Hell, half the time words like "good" and "evil" didn't even have any _meaning _beyond one person justifying what they did as right, or to condemn the actions of other people and slate them as wrong.

And yet, despite the neutrality which came with knowledge, some of the books absolutely _reeked _of darkness, hatred, and even malice as he held them in his hands. His thoughts slowly clouding with anger, hate, and rage, Jack forced the _grimoires _out of his hands and back into their homes, blinking the darkness from his mind's eye.

Now, Jack was no stranger to dark emotions and thoughts running through his head, but those were _his _thoughts in his head when he thought them. The… _vibe _some of these books and tomes and scrolls gave off… It was as though the _darkness _in the hearts of those that penned these works had remained, even after themselves, their names, and their deeds had faded from the annals of history. As though they wanted to infect their wickedness upon the future through the works they left behind and those that gazed upon them.

"I am no-one's tool. No-one's _slave_. I'm my own master now," Jack said to himself bitterly as he cast the works aside. In the face of an evil that cannot be defeated with just means, there were usually only two paths from that juncture. You either stain your hands with evil to destroy evil, or remain steadfastly just and righteous even if it means _surrendering_ to evil. In Jack's case, he would choose… No… He _chose_ to commit evil to destroy the greater evil.

However, even when mired in resentment and wading through blood, Jack did so by _his _choice, _his _will. Not because some dead guy who no-one even remembered had a grudge against the living. He would not allow others to control him.

"Never again."

Shaking those thoughts from his head, Jack made his way to the front of the underground library once more, pulling out a hand-carved chair and taking a seat at the first table, interlacing his fingers below his nose as he once more took everything in. It was obvious that this place had been here since the Valian royal family, later re-purposed by Beacon's first headmaster to contain the growing "forbidden" knowledge that streamed in from around the world. There were bound to be _countless _secrets down here, just ripe for the picking.

"And yet Ozpin gave me free reign of all this?" he said once more taking everything in. "I know that this is what I _asked _for in exchange for my help and future services rendered, but I can't help but wonder _why _he was so willing to give me the keys to the kingdom."

The reasons were of course too numerous to account for _every _possibility. One is that Ozpin simply didn't think Jack would be able to make _use _of anything down there, and didn't consider it any big loss to give him access. Another is that he contemplated Jack _could _use whatever forbidden knowledge he could soak up, and intended to turn these secrets against the forces of darkness who may or may not have similar forbidden arts at their own disposal. There could be a form of scientific curiosity behind it, wondering what kind of "waves" certain secrets seeing the light of day would cause after being hidden for so many centuries. What was in these books could potentially tip the balance of power all across Remnant if certain secrets were abused.

Then again, it didn't seem like Ozpin doubted his ability to keep Jack in line even if he _did _decide to abuse the secrets to be found here. "Jack the Ripper" was the nom de plume of a White Fang Lieutenant who was a front line soldier in the shadow war going on between the Pro-Faunus White Fang, and the Pro-Human Circle of Man. A war that every day meant the difference between life and death for countless Faunus, one that most ruled off as conspiracy theory and so many others refused to believe even existed. Slave rings, forced labor camps, lynch mobs. If the Circle used them as tools to oppress the Faunus and try to bring back the "glory days" of when Faunus were slaves, then "Jack the Ripper" was there tripping them up every step of the way. And each of those steps were mired with blood, a veritable ocean of blood he'd waded through for four long years.

He'd killed maybe thousands in his time, some more painfully and brutally than others, and yet Ozpin deigned to let him within arm's reach of the future protectors of the world. Maybe Ozpin actually did trust him to do the right thing, or he only let him in to keep him in a position where he could be more-readily observed and tracked. Either way, giving him access to these secrets could be a sign of trust, a way to placate him, or both, and Jack wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth as long as he could find something down there that would let him fuck the Circle of Man's shit _up_!

"Still… There's too much here for a single person to cover. If only I had an assistant of sorts. Someone who deeply loved and respected books that could act as my aid while I scavenged for secret knowledge down here. Hmmm…" he hummed, closing his eyes in contemplation. "If only I knew someone like that… If _only_…"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Still tired from the day before, his Aura slow to recover in full, Jack made his way above-ground, not a soul or electronic eye catching wind of his passing from what was bound to be a major state secret. Breathing in the fresh above-ground air, Jack walked around Beacon, wondering what he could do, before his Scroll vibrated in his pocket.

"Huh. Looks like Jaune wants to talk to me. I wonder what he wants," Jack said as he read the message, before turning on his heel and heading for the designated meeting place. After the guy finally grew a pair and decided to assert himself against Cardin, he could afford to humor the blond. At least a little bit.

Said meeting place was the arena that Glynda held her Live Combat class in. The dueling stage floor had been resurfaced after the damage previously caused, as though half of it _hadn't _been dug-up or pulled-out in the heat of combat. Because finals for most of those in the freshman first term had _just _ended, the place was actually quite dead, closed off from formal use until the next term, which would start the _next _Monday.

And pacing atop it was Jaune Arc, nervously wringing his hands as he walked around in circles and muttering to himself. His hair was disheveled, his eyes were darting, and he was short of breath. Most of the signs of Irreversible Gorge Madness, with the exception of inane paranoia directed towards inanimate ob-

_"Shut up! Don't embarrass me!" _Jaune hissed at the sheathed sword he was clutching.

-jects…

_'Why do I always get stuck with the crazy ones?' _Jack grumbled to himself as he walked forward, his feet padding silently across the stage floor like a cat, his hand opened and raised before bringing it down on the blond's back with a loud- "WAKE UP!" **_*CLAP*_**

"Eyaahaagh!" Jaune screamed in an effeminate yell. "Oh… Hey Jack… What're you doing here." In response, Jack held up the text sent to him with a neutral look on his face. "Oh."

"So… What did you want _this_ time?"

"A number of things actually, I'll try not to take too much of your time," Jaune said as he wrung his hands. His mother always told him, if you ever call someone out-of-the-way, you try not to chew up too much of their time, which they'd gone through the trouble to give to you. "First off, are you and Weiss actually-"

"No. Just, no."

"Then why were you-"

"Weiss wanted to screw with Yang's head a little. Nothing more."

"But-"

"We only spooned, and nothing else. _Nothiiing_."

"…Oh…"

"What's next on he agenda for the stupid-questions club?"

"Well… Yesterday when you were dying and Weiss was about to k-k-_kiss _you… I _may _have… sorta tried to stop her because _I _wanted to be her first kiss," he said wringing his hands nervously. "So… I'm sorry."

"Okay first off, shame on you. _Shame. On. You,_" he said as he repeatedly flipped Jaune the bird for trying to stop Weiss for saving his life for such a petty reason. "Second, if a little lip-action is bending you out of shape _this_ much, we've _got _to get you laid one of these days. Seriously, that wasn't even a _kiss_. More like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," Jack deadpanned at how stupid the blond was being. "I think the Followers of Miritta have a commune here in the bad side of Vale, so I could probably take you by _them _to pop your cherry one of these days," he suggested causing Jaune to flush bright red. "Best part is since it's an integral aspect of their religious denomination, the police can't arrest you for soliciting prostitution." At this Jaune paled slightly. Ever since the "four dudes at a minimum" episode, he'd occasionally have nightmares centering around prison rape at the hands, and _genitals_, of a larger-than-life black man with a six-foot-

"Jaune!" **_*Snap*Snap* _**"You're spacing out on me again! So c'mon, get the lead out!"

"Right, well… I'll just come out and say it then…"

" . . . Well, I'm waiting," Jack said after a full minute of Jaune saying _nothing._

"I'm sorry, but this is very hard for me to say! Can you just give me a minute!"

"Oh I swear to goddes, if you're _actually _going to come out of the closet to me, I _will _murder you, and hide your body in the Emerald Forest!" Jack growled.

"No, _god _no! It's nothing like that!" Jaune recoiled in horror at the thought of Jack murdering him where he stood, sitting his corpse on that catapult, and launching him into the Emerald Forest where he'd then become a greasy red stain on the ground for Grimm to lap up like some kind of flesh smoothie.

"Then just say what you want to say already! What are you, a freaking _schoolgirl_!?" Jack growled, not liking that his time was being wasted. "C'mon, you already grew a pair of balls when you stood up to Cardin and mostly-killed that Minor, so start acting like a freakin' _man _already!"

"Okay… Okay… I'm getting it out already," Jaune said trying to collect his thoughts, because by the way Jack was tapping his foot, he was a minute at the most from just walking away. "Jack…" he said as he mustered his courage. "I want you to help me become stronger!"

" . . . Come again?" the Faunus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I want you to help me become stronger," Jaune repeated, before getting down on his knees, bowing his head with his hands on the ground, elbows out at right angles. "I'm not strong. I know that. Just like I know that Pyrrha held my hand when I fought that Ursa Minor by moving my shield for me."

At that statement, Jack raised an eyebrow. "Huh, guess I don't give you enough _credit _if you actually noticed that."

"And that's why I'm asking- no, _begging_, that you help train me to become stronger!" Jaune said as he lowered his head once more.

" . . . You're _serious _about this?"

"The most-serious I've ever been in my life!"

"And you'll do whatever I say?"

"Without question!"

"And you asked this of me… _why_?" he asked with a raised brow.

"Because you're _easily _the strongest guy in freshman year," Jaune complimented (read: pandered). "The Dirge-Breaker… The Invincible-Slayer… Beacon's Bloody Badger… and Wrecker of All Your Shit… Your monstrous power strikes terror into the hearts of mortal men, with the mere mentioning of your name sending those lesser than you _running _for the hills," he said resorting to flattery to get what he wanted. He knew that the toes he stepped on last week were connected to the ass he was kissing today, but if it meant prostrating himself before the Faunus so he could get better, well… It wasn't like he was throwing away his pride or anything, since he barely had that to begin with.

"Oh, you dirty bitch, _work the shaft!_"

"Ex…cuse you…?" Jaune asked skeptically.

"Oh I'm sorry. I like to dirty talk when someone's _sucking my dick_," the Faunus answered condescendingly.

"…Perhaps I should just skip to my point," Jaune deadpanned, knowing he'd walked right into _that _one. "Jack… I'm on my hands and knees here… I am _begging _you… I don't care _what _it takes… How much I'll have to sweat, or bleed, or cry… I can't be powerless like this again! I'll do whatever you ask of me, but please…! You're the _only _one I can turn to!"

"_Really_…?" Jack said skeptically as he considered the blond's request.

On the one hand, he had been sure the blond was going to turn to _Pyrrha _for training instead once the dust from his first scandal settled. The girl _did _have a four-time championship streak under her belt after all, and the red-head was _easily _the strongest person on Team JNPR; maybe second-best to Ren once he began to show his true nature. On the _other _hand, the blond probably turned to Jack _instead _because of some stupid macho thing that compelled him to ask for aid from another _guy _instead. For some reason it was infinitely harder for most guys to turn to a _woman _for aid when there were guys _available_, even when they were less-qualified than the women-in-question.

Meanwhile in another universe, due to a lack of other options, Jaune Arc would ask Pyrrha Nikos for training. If the Jaune of the here-and-now knew that even _was _a perfectly-viable option for himself, "Slayerverse Jaune" would've taken that option too.

Unfortunately, for him, he did not. Now, back to the narrative.

"Yes! Really!" Jaune pleaded.

"Okay… Then let me ask you _this_," Jack said as he rubbed his temples. "_Why _did you lie your way into Beacon, even though you knew it was morally wrong and stripping away someone _else's _chance for a better future all for your own benefit? Why _come _here, when you knew this farce couldn't last forever?" Jack asked. "Because if you don't give me a _legitimate _reason to build you up, I'm leaving your scrawny white ass hanging in the wind."

"Because… Because _this _is what I've wanted to be!" he said motioning all around. "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all _heroes_! I wanted to be one too… but I was just never good enough."

"…That doesn't really tell me why _I_, should help _you_."

"It's because I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!" Jaune shouted out. "I'm _tired_, of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Tired of always having people watch my back and I can't cover theirs! I want to be the knight in shining armor that saves the princess! The good guy that gets the girl in the end! The guy, who marries his high school sweetheart, and settles down in a house with a picket-fence! _That's _what I want to be! …And you're the only one who can help me."

'_Other than _Pyrrha _you mean,' _Jack said rolling his eyes, wondering if the blond was really that dense. Then again… he _was _totally oblivious to the hot red-head who wanted to drink his dude-nectar. "Well now…" Jack hummed as he crossed his arms, drumming his fingers before saying- "_You're _a greedy bastard, aren't ya?"

"Wh-What?" Jaune gawped.

"All I hear is _me_, _me_, _me_ coming out of your mouth," Jack said jerking his head with each word. "_You _want to be the hero. _You _want to be the guy that saves the princess. _You _want a happy ending. You think you _deserve_, a happy ending, even though everything you've done up to this moment was based on a little white lie," Jack tallied off. "If that isn't selfish, I don't know _what _is. And do you know what none of what you've said tells me?" he asked, the blond looking up at him in confusion. "It tells me _no reason_, that I should stick my neck out for you. No reason to spend my _time_, on you. So you either tell me something that makes this endeavor worthwhile in the next five seconds, or I walk, and I never speak to you again. You big faker," he said as he slowly walked off. "Five…" he counted off, Jaune scrambling to his feet and reaching out to him, the Faunus' footfalls echoing loudly through the room.

**_*Clop-lop-lop-lop-lop*_**

"Four…"

Finally getting to his feet, Jaune clawed at the air in front of him, his legs refusing to move as he felt like he was being smothered in syrup.

**_*Clop-lop-lop-lop-lop*_**

"Three…"

Jack's back was getting further away, slowly enveloped by the darkness as he stepped out from under the stage lights.

**_*Clop-lop-lop-lop-lop*_**

"Two…"

If he didn't think of something, Jack was going to walk off, and that was it. Every ounce of courage he'd mustered that day… Every drop of energy he'd squeezed out of himself to fight for himself, and his friends, and even his bully...

**_*Clop-lop-lop-lop-lop*_**

"One…"

All of it would be for nothing. He'd be back at square one. Nothing would change!

**_*Clop-lop-lop-lop-lop*_**

"Zer-"

"**It's because I hate who I've become!**" Jaune shouted as white Aura exploded from his body, his voice shaking the very air as he poured all of his emotion, all his rage, his anger, and all of his sorrow into that singular moment.

"…I'm listening," Jack said lowering his foot from mid-step.

"I hate, that I had to lie my way into Beacon. I hate, that every mean thing you said about me is one-hundred percent true. I hate, that I couldn't be the leader, the _friend_, my team deserves. But the thing I hate the most of all is… I hate… I hate that in that one moment, where Cardin was about to get eaten, that I'd fallen so low I thought letting him get killed just to keep my secret was even an _option,_" he admitted, shoulders shaking and tears streaming down his eyes. "If my father, my grandfather, or _any _of the Arcs could've seen me at that moment… If I'd let Cardin die just to keep my secret safe… then our family name would no longer be a name reserved for heroes… only liars… and traitors… and _thieves_…"

" . . . "

"I know I'm not a good person. I'm no knight in shining armor. And I'm most definitely not a hero… But I want to change! I want to do better! To do the family proud! To be the good guy for _real _this time! So please… I'm begging you," he said falling to his knees, tears dripping onto the ground. "Help me, please… I'm begging you…"

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . Fine," Jack huffed out. "You have my attention," he said turning around, holding out his hand to the blond crying at his feet. "Consider yourself enrolled in Jack Braxton's School of Hard Knocks."

_*GASP* _"OH! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou-"

"If you hug me," he said holding Jaune's face at arm's length, the blond's arms flailing towards him. "I _will _kill you."

"Thank you so much, Jack! You won't regret this! I swear!" Jaune said as he wiped tears and snot onto his sleeve.

"Whether or not I'll regret this has yet to be seen," Jack shrugged. "Just remember one thing…" he said leveling a half-lidded stare at the blond, the tone around the two shifting as the air suddenly grew cold. "I'm not your coach. I'm not your babysitter. I'm not your keeper, or your buddy, and I'm _definitely _not your friend," he listed off, the blond about to interject, only for a flash of baleful red to shut him up. "I'm your _drill sergeant_, and _you're _the worthless pile of cow manure I have to whip up into something presentable. So you're going to do _what _I say, _when _I say it, _exactly _as I say it. And if you do _anything _to betray your words, if you _ever_ betray my trust, if you _ever_, _fuck_ me, then I'll beat you within an inch of your life, rip your dick off, shove it up your ass, before handing off your scrawny white ass to some _very _intimate roommates, whose dicks will then have a little _reunion party _with yours. Do I make myself clear?"

"U-Um… I…" Jaune stammered as his mind tried to filter out the very disturbing picture Jaune had painted for him.

"**Do I make myself clear?**"Jack demanded, his tone taking on a demonic edge as an aura like running paint began to run off his body, a massive wall of fur, teeth, horns, claws, and eyes rising up behind him, steam rising out the latter's mouth.

"Sir, yes sir!" Jaune cried as he saluted shakily, sweat running out every pore. And only the smallest bit of urine.

"Excellent!" Jack said with a chipper smile that did _not _belong on his face, the phantasmal monster behind him seemingly retreating back into the Faunus' body in disinterest. "Now, seeing as how I've decided to take you under my wing for _totally _altruistic reasons, I just have one question for you before I send you off for the evening."

"Um, what is it, sir-"

"Dodge."

"That's… not a.. question-"

"TRAINING BEGINS NOW!" Jack bellowed as he put his left foot forward and brought up his right heel. Twisting his hips and right fist careening towards the Human's face, the Faunus' presence overwhelmed him as bandage-clad knuckles drilled into his face, knocking him off his feet and sending him tumbling through the air before coming to a stop in the nearby wall with a deafening **_*CRASH*_**. "Why didn't you DOOOOODGE!?" the Faunus demanded of him, Jaune's eyes spinning in his head before he realized he was now upside-down.

"I didn't think… you were going… to _hit _me…" the blond squelched out as his Scroll fell from his pocket. By some miracle, it opened up when it hit the ground, while by some _other _miracle, it showed the App that presented his Aura to him, a single line of pixels saying that whatever Aura he'd been able to recover from the field trip, almost all of it had been exhausted.

"…You're dismissed for the day," Jack breathed out. _'This is gonna be a pain in the ass I just know it,' _the Faunus grumbled to himself as he walked away. "Oh. One more thing," he said before walking over to Jaune. At first the blond thought that Jack was going to help extricate him from the wall, but that sentiment quickly died when-

**_*Thwack*_**

"OW!" Jaune yelped as the Faunus thwacked him across the temple with his index and middle fingers.

"One _more_ thing," Jack said to Jaune, who flinched thinking he was about to get another two-fingered slap. "I have a class assignment for you. Think of it as homework for the bootcamp you just signed up for."

"Homework? Like what?" Jaune said as he struggled to extricate himself from the wall.

Releasing a deep breath from his nose, Jack had a calm expression on his face before it suddenly turned super-serious, all of the contours on his face becoming shaded and the scenery darkening behind him before a great white light suddenly shone. Of course, that could've been the hit to the head talking. Jaune _did _feel kind of concussion-y.

"One hundred push-ups! One hundred sit-ups! One hundred squats! Then a ten kilometer run! Every single day!" Jack raged. "And of course, make sure you eat three meals a day. Just a banana in the morning is fine. But the most important thing is to never use the A/C or heat in the summer or winter so that you can strengthen the mind," he said with a more-calmed expression. "In the beginning, you'll wish you were dead. You might start thinking 'What's the harm of taking a day off?'," he questioned. "But for me, in order to become strong, no matter how tough it was, even if I was spitting blood, I never stopped. I kept doing squats even when my legs were so heavy they refused to move. Even when my arms started making weird clicking noises, I kept doing push-ups. In other words, you gotta train like hell. That's the only way to become strong!"

This _was _of course a bit of an exaggeration on his part.

Being a slave locked away in some rich asshole's basement, the only thing he really _could _do was work out. After almost dying his first time in the Killing Bites, he began working every muscle in his body, even when his muscles ached, his bones creaked, or his wounds bled. And it wasn't like he had the _luxury _of three meals a day, every day, only whatever scraps his "master" deigned to feed him, and whatever that one butler-looking motherfucker could sneak in, some meals better than others. It was hard at first to live like that, other than the emotional turmoil of being a slave and an _orphan _(his father was hardly there growing up, so he didn't "count"), but eventually, he, or rather his _body_, learned how to squeeze every last drop out of the food he'd eaten and things got… _B__etter _would be too-strong a word, but at least they hadn't gotten any worse than the whipping. Had he been born a _girl_, he'd have probably been raped, _repeatedly,_ just like _every_ female slave he and the White Fang rescued from whatever labor camps they could find.

And then there was the fact that the place was hot in the summer, and freezing in the winter, so it was either sweltering or freezing down there. There wasn't a whole lot of space to run either, so the things he gave to Jaune were just some arbitrary numbers and exercises he cooked up at the last minute.

"Is there… anything else…?" Jaune groaned.

"No… Nothing else…" Jack sighed as he blinked away the cage bars before his eyes. "Your training starts tomorrow," he said as he walked off.

"Okay…" Jaune replied. "W-Wait! Where should we meet up?"

"What, you think I'm just going to hold your _hand _through all this?" Jack asked over his shoulder. "I've got better things to do than walk you through this every step of the way. You wanna become strong, you put some god-damned effort into it. I'll give you a call if I come up with something for you to do."

"Alright… I hear you…" Jaune groaned as the Faunus began walking off again. "Ah! Wait!"

"Oh for the love of Etro, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT NOW!?" Jack raged, tired of being interrupted from going back home to his bed. And the hot girl who was insisted he stay in it at eight hours the minimum.

"How do I convince my team not to use the heater or AC?"

"That's _your _problem," Jack returned plainly as he walked off. "Don't ask me stupid questions again, or you'll be _staying _in that wall."

"Okay… See you later…" Jaune replied as the Faunus finally walked off. Mustering the strength to extricate himself from that wall, an arm was the first to break free from the confines of his cement prison, followed by a leg. Eventually he broke his way out, only to flop onto the ground. "Urgh…" the blond groaned as he rubbed his aching head, spitting out a bit of blood from where he'd bit his cheek. "Well…" he groaned as he fell onto his butt, reaching for his Scroll. "That could've gone better…" he groaned as he rubbed his aching face. "Still… at the least, maybe I can do the Arc family name _proud_," he said shakily getting to his feet, only to collapse to his knees. "Urgh…" he groaned as he laid out his Scroll in front of him and tapped a few buttons. "Pyrrha? You there?"

"Hello, Jaune. Did you need something?"

"Yeah… Could you… come by the stadium?" he asked. "Jack hit me kinda hard, and everything hurts. A _lot_."

"Jaune… What did you do?" Pyrrha asked worriedly. "Did you talk smack about his mother?"

"No… No… Nothing like that," Jaune chuckled out. "Ow! Hurts to laugh…" he groaned holding his side. "It was just me… and my stupid macho guy stuff," he said as he rubbed his face, which was beginning to bruise. "Anyway, can you come pick me up?"

"Sure thing, Jaune. I'll be there in a minute."

"Good… Now if you'll excuse me… I have to pass out from the pain."

_***Whump***_

"Jaune? Jaune, can you hear me? Jaune!"

By the time Pyrrha got there, she would find Jaune face-down in front of his Scroll, his back covered in bruises, as was the left side of his face, and a human-shaped indent in the wall behind him like he'd tried to do an upside-down snow-angel.

**_*GIANT-SLAYER*_**

**Cue RWBY Volume 2 Soundtrack - All Our Days**

A sigh leaving his lips, Jack left the arena, fingers interlaced behind his head as he took a stroll down memory lane, passing by the statue of Hunters Passed as he thought back to all the friends he'd made.

_**"But that still doesn't make it**_ **right_! I know we didn't really talk that much on day one, and I don't know that much about you personally, but darnit, you're one of my best friends!_"**

"Ruby… You're such an honest, _simple _soul, and I know you're gonna grow up to be quite the amazing Huntress someday… I just hope I live long enough to see it."

_**"What I'm **_**trying _to apologize for… What I want,_** **need _to apologize for_…_ is failing to give you the benefit of the doubt_**_**_._ From day one, all I ever showed you was hate, and**_ **contempt_, simply because you were born with an extra set of ears on your head, because you were born different. You weren't even _born _during the Faunus Wars, but I treated you like a war criminal all the same. I'm supposed to be a Huntress, protector of man and its creations, a paragon of virtue to rise against the darkness_****_… But all I've done is perpetuate the same hatred and contempt that's plagued our world for centuries. In a way, we're no different from Grimm, lashing out at everything that's different indiscriminately, simply because we can._"**

"Weiss… You were a cold fish when we met, a pain in the ass for weeks on end… but I honestly think you're going to be a better person than that ice-cold father of yours."

_**"I am not lazy! And**__**… Thanks. I'll take your advise under consideration."**_

"Blake… I kinda-sorta understand what you're trying to do, but hiding yourself with a little black bow isn't the answer. And seriously… How long can that disguise of yours hold out? Another week? A month, _tops_?"

_**"But I **_**can't**_** forget! I **_**won't**_**! What happened to you, and your mother, and your sister, and all those Faunus**__**… I **_**can't**_** just up and forget what happened! If I do, it's like I'm saying I'm **_**okay**_** with what happened, and I'm **_**not**_**."**_

"Yang… You've been such a good friend to me, making me feel welcome from day one, trusting me unconditionally. Honestly, if there were more open-minded people like you willing to give out just a _little _trust to someone different from you, the world would be a much better place."

_**" . . . Well alright then."**_

"Ren… Even though you try and fade into the background like your life depends on it, you're definitely one of the more-interesting guys I've ever encountered. Glad I can count on at least _one _guy-friend to have my back when things get too… weird."

_**"Sweet! We can be**_ **boner_-buddies together!_"**

"Nora… Not really sure what to think about you, but you're _definitely_ one-of-a-kind. I look forward to breaking many-a-leg with you these next four years."

_**"Yeah**__**… I guess you're right. To friendship."**_

"Pyrrha… You're a little naive to the ways of the world, and champion or not you've still got a bit of growing-up to do, but I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of person you become."

_**"I want you to help me become stronger!"**_

"Jaune…" Jack hummed trying to think of something nice to say about the guy. "Meh, I can probably squeeze a couple cheap laughs out of the guy before he wises up and asks _Pyrrha _to train him instead of me."

Stepping away from memory lane, Jack realized he'd wandered all the way to the airfield in front of Beacon. As opposed to day one, where countless people of every age, race, color, gender, and religious denomination had all intermingled in a vibrant collage of living color, today, things were actually quite peaceful and serene. Instead of the massive airships bringing in hundreds from around the world, now, there were only a few small ferrying vessels, taking small clusters of people to-and-from Beacon's grounds.

"It's been one hell of a ride, this last month," Jack hummed as he thought back to his first day. Looking at a charred spot of ground, he realized that to be exactly the same spot where Ruby and Weiss had had their very first altercation on that day. It was faded, the edges a bit scuffed-out, and probably cleaned numerous times since that day, but there were still traces of soot in the ground.

Walking past the airfield, the **_*clop-clop* _**of Jack's footsteps on cobblestone and duracrete soon gave way to the **_*crunch-crunch* _**of grass underfoot. That gently-swaying grass soon began to **_*squish* _**and **_*squash* _**under his feet, until he eventually found himself over the western cliff overlooking the Vale River. The waterfall gushing from the underground river was only a few meters below him, and the updraft sprayed a cooling mist over his weren't any railings overlooking the cliff because those that _were _put up always got knocked over by low-flying airships, and they were never replaced because there were simply more-important things that needed doing.

"Vale… It looks so small from up here… so inconsequential…" he said looking out at the city in the distance. "I wonder, Jill… Is this place really worth protecting?" he asked aloud. "The _people _certainly aren't, if those three Vale boys are any indication," he said as he thought back to his former teammates. "What was the first one's name again? D… Dom… Dumbass? Yeah, Dumbass sounds about right," the Faunus shrugged.

It had definitely been one hell of a ride, that first month at Beacon. Getting assigned a crap team, beating _up _ that crap team, and then becoming part of a whole _new _team. Fighting "The Invincible Girl", the youngest Schnee heiress, "The Wicked" Goodwitch, and an Ursa Major to boot. He also suspected he was going to have to bury three bodies, but he supposed he could wait another couple weeks before they did something stupid and he had to slaughter them in a bout of "self-defense". In the modern day and age, it really _was _a flimsy and ambiguous excuse when most people with Aura had superpowers.

"What a ride. And there's still four more years to go, take away a month," Jack said to himself. Stepping away from the western cliff, he let out a yawn as he walked back to the very same tree he hid behind on the first day. Settling himself against the bark for a little sunbathing, he let out a yawn and was about to nap when his Scroll suddenly vibrated in his pocket. Popping it open, he saw that it was a message to all students from the faculty. It didn't seem very urgent, so Jack decided to ignore it and have himself a little nap.

Then, a few minutes later as he was almost asleep, his Scroll vibrated _again_. Popping it open with a groan, an eyebrow quirked when he saw that it was instead from Ruby, the subject matter reading as **URGENT! **Giving it a read, all he really saw in all-capital letters was an emergency summons for the members of Team RWBBY, and that they should return to the room immediately.

"Huh. Guess there's no rest for the wicked," he said with a shrug.

Climbing to his feet, Jack read the message before making his way back into the heart of Beacon. Little did he know, that his feet fell in the exact same places as the first time he'd walked this path. Nor did he notice the hazy light-green specter watching him from the treeline, a serene smile on her face as she broke apart into pollen-like particles.

**To be continued…**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**First off, the "To be continued…" does NOT mean this story is Over and there's a sequel on the way. Only that the NEXT chapter continues IMMEDIATELY where this one ended. Just want to make that abundantly clear.**

**On note of the Superlight 15/-9, this is based on the most-expensive sleeping bag in the world IRL, which Weiss is most-likely to have in her possession. Not sure if we're _allowed _to advertise real-world products on-site, so I just want to make it clear that I'm not in any way shape or form being paid to advertise real-world products in any fiscal capacity.  
**

**As for the Library, I'd like to think I did a pretty good job describing the place with only a few minutes of footage from RWBY Volume 2 Episode 2 "Welcome to Beacon". The basement floor and the "Ancient Library" underneath are all-original ideas, not sure if THAT'S been done before. I'd like to think I did my best setting the "vibe" for the place, since it isn't "clean" like the Vault that Amber was being kept in, it's closer to an ancient "study", the kind of place you'd find in a temple somewhere in Skyrim.**

**When it comes to the "class assignment" and dialogue that Jack exchanged with Jaune, those were both inspired by One Punch Man. As for Saitama's training menu itself, well...**

**PSA ALERT!**

**While going to MTACT 16-Bit, I went to a ****One Punch Man**** Panel and learned something very interesting. Based on the real-world biology as-debated by a group of doctors and one surgeon who's done 3500+ surgeries on bone, I (and a roomful of people) actually discovered that if you ****_did _****do Saitama's workout menu "every single day", it would LITERALLY kill you from the tearing of your muscles, the breaking of your bones, and the giving-out of your heart and lungs. That "clicking" sound Saitama was talking about? That was the sound of all the cartilage between his bones having been worn away, and his bones were ****_literally _****scraping and grinding against one another.**

**In short, do NOT do that "every single day". I ****_specifically _****asked if "every ****_other _****day" was fine, and as long as you have a day of rest in between, you can do Saitama's workout and not die a horribly-painful death.**

**On a completely unrelated note, I also learned that the force behind the punch that Saitama used to split Boros' "Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon" in half, or rather, the ****_kinetic _****force that split that energy in half, was the equivalent of "100 million billion googleplex megatons", or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 MT, 100 x 10-to-the-115th power in scientific notation), according to an MIT Theoretical Physicist that the host of the same panel had talked with prior to the panel; they ****_literally _****had to make up a new number for the amount of megatons that Saitma can dish out because nothing else was high enough. Superman in comparison has only been known to withstand a force of around 10 octillian megaton (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 MT) of force. Compared to Saitama's 115 zeroes behind the 1, Superman's 28 zeroes doesn't come anywhere close.**

**This means that in essence, Saitama is a walking Particle Accelerator, because for the ****_most part_****, light is ****_literally _****indestructible, and it takes a ****_lot _****of kinetic force to make light move even the smallest iota from its given path.**

**So for those of you who aren't ****_thrilled _****with the result of the Goku vs Superman DEATHBATTLE, just know that Saitama ****_can _****"one-punch" Superman. Based on Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.", this means that Saitama at the ****_minimum_****, is capable of withstanding forces equal to what he can dish out.**

**PSA ALERT END!**

**Anyway, a slightly-different route than in the original draft was taken to get to that end, but Jack's taken Jaune under his wing, though he's by no means going to hold the blond fop's hand. Some of their tort-training might be made into actual chapters, while others might be Omake or Deleted scenes based on context. If you have any funny ideas for potentially-life-threatening shit Jaune might be made to ****_do _****by Jack, please leave any and all suggestions you might have in a Review, and it might make the final cut.**

**P.S.****  
****Something I should point out, is that until Jaunedice, there wasn't any REASON for Jaune to develop as a character and get stronger; both in canon and in fanfiction (if you use the Canon as the basis). UNTIL Cardin began blackmailing him, there was no CONSEQUENCE for lying his way into Beacon, he was simply hanging by the tailcoats of his peers; like Pyrrha who prevented Natural Selection from cleaning the sludge form the bottom of the gene pool. It was only when he FACED the consequences of his actions, that there was a REASON for him to grow, rather than tread in place. And thus is the explanation of why Jaune showed no noticeable growth in strength for the first 25+ chapters of this fanfic.**

**Thank you, and good night.**


	28. Challenges on the Horizon

"Guys, I'm back! What's the emergency?" Jack asked from outside Team RWBBY's window. It was faster to climb up the tree and sidle along the east wall than it was to climb three flights of stairs.

"Jack, it's terrible! Someone's going to get kicked out of Beacon!" Ruby cried as she grabbed the lapels of his collar through the window and jerked him back and forth.

"Someone want to give me some context?" the Faunus asked.

"Ruby, maybe if you actually read the _whole _message instead of just skimmed through it and fixating on certain words, you wouldn't have anything to freak out about," Weiss huffed as she pulled up the message from her Scroll that Jack had received minutes before.

**Dear Students,**

** I am happy to announce that Beacon Academy will be having its Annual Sports Day on May 7th (Friday), 80AGW, following the completion of the Hunter Course first-month term. We are very much looking forward to your support and participation, and steadfastly anticipate an exciting and enjoyable day blessed by good weather. Here we hope to celebrate and test the athletic abilities of all students, showcasing their individual and group talents.**

** We ask that all students be ready at 7:00 AM, dressed in the recommended PE kit and having had a hearty breakfast. At 8:00 AM, they will report to their first-period classrooms at the usual time where their homeroom teacher will register them for the Events of their choices. Water and sunscreen will be provided as-necessary, free-of-charge.**

** As athletic ability is essential to excel at being a Huntsman or Huntress, not merely one's skill with a weapon, participation is MANDATORY. Students are required to participate in a minimum of seven (7) events. That being said, there is no upper limit on how many events one can participate in, and one may even participate in all events if they are so inclined. Any students who attempt to skip Sports Day for anything other than Medical or Familial complications, will face disciplinary review and possible expulsion. Those of the Junior and Senior years whom are out on assignment at the time may be exempted from these games without consequence.**

** As usual, there will be rewards given out to Event Winners, graciously donated by our Academy sponsors. Rewards range from medals, exclusive coupons, gift certificates, and access to additional school resources. The Teams with the most wins of each year will also be awarded with additional prizes.**

** As lack of athletic ability can lead to death when facing Grimm, not only for oneself but others as well, students with consistently low scores will face negative responses. The Team with the lowest overall score may face disbandment, and any students with a consistently-poor performance runs the risk of expulsion altogether.**

** Additional medical personnel will be readily available during Sports Day, in the event of injury or any other medical complications that may come up during the games. They will also be in charge of conducting screenings both before and after the Events, to check for the presence any illegal performance-enhancing substances. Any students found using and/or in possession of any performance-enhancing drugs will face expulsion and possible criminal prosecution.**

** We hope that all the young men and women training to become the future saviors of the world will display the physical prowess that enabled them to attend our prestigious institution. Play smart, play hard, but most of all, have fun.**

** Sincerely, Professor Ozpin**  
** Headmaster of Beacon Academy**

"You see. It isn't just _anybody _that's getting the boot this year. It's just who consistently performs the _poorest _that will potentially be getting expelled from Beacon," Weiss said matter-of-factly.

" . . . Oh," Ruby said with a flush on her face.

"So… It's like a sports festival from a manga?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That'd explain the _package _we just got," Yang said dropping a box atop the conjoined bookshelves in the center of the room. It was addressed **To: Team Ruby**, and had **Sports Day **posted on the sides. "Anyone got a box-opener?"

"Don't worry, girls," Ruby said cutting Jack off as he raised a clawed thumb. "_I got this_!" she said in a high-pitched squeal as she grabbed her Crescent Rose from her bed.

The girl's ridiculously-large weapon unfolded to full splendor, the remaining letters of RWBBY screamed as they threw themselves to the floor. Not a moment later and the girl began twirling it before in a wide arc, she slashed the topmost layer of cardboard off the box, using her High-Caliber Sniper-Scythe for a purpose it was _never _originally designed for. The ruined drapes were a testament to that.

"Ruby, you oaf!" Weiss screamed as she clocked Ruby over the head. "Give us some _warning _when you're about to do something so reckless! You could've taken someone's head off!"

"Still, you have to commend the girl's accuracy," Blake said as she flicked away the lid with her finger, the contents of the box completely undisturbed.

"That came a little close to comfort," Jack sighed, patting the top of his head. "Am I missing an ear?"

"Don't worry, you're all good," Yang said pinching the tips of his ears.

"That's good. Because I was _not _looking forward to getting these sewn back on again," Jack sighed. When he saw the wide-eyed expressions on his teammates' faces, he realized- "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"I'M SO SORRYYY!" Ruby bawled as she hugged him, crying into his chest.

"Hey-Hey it's okay!" Jack said as he stroked her head. "You can hardly tell they'd been worked on."

"How can you be so _nonchalant _about that?!" Weiss demanded. "How many times has that _happened _before?!" she said pointing at his ears.

"Hey, at least I wasn't scalped. There are some real _sickos _out there, I'll tell ya what."

"PLEASE FORGIVE MEEEEEEE!" Ruby cried anew, realizing she'd nearly chopped her friend's ears off.

"She's going to be like this all day, isn't she?" Blake asked.

"Hey, as long as this drives the whole weapon awareness thing home, I'm okay with a little guilt-racking," Yang shrugged.

"There, there, Ruby, I'm not mad at you," Jack said soothingly, the sobbing girl sitting in his lap as he stroked her hair.

_*Sniff*_ "R-Really?" she asked with puppy-dog eyes.

"Yeah, really," Jack said with a smile.

"Awwww~" Yang cooed, snapping a picture with her Scroll for posterity. Off to the side, Blake was scribbling in her little black book. A little ways away, Weiss was pouting jealously her peer's way before she clapped her cheeks.

_***BRRRRRRRN* **_"EEEEEP!" Ruby squawked red-faced as something vibrated underneath her, the hidden Faunus' face flushing red as she scribbled furiously in her book anew. Jack effortlessly picking the girl up and setting her aside, as she fidgeted off to the side, he looked into his Scroll to see a new message waiting for him.

" . . . Hm," Jack hummed before closing his Scroll. "If you'll excuse me all for a moment, I have to take care of something," the Faunus said as he left the room, Yang ribbing her red-faced sister, while Weiss squawked at the blond's lack of class. Off in the corner, Blake was giggling perversely, a complete juxtaposition from the black-haired beauty's norm.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hello again." –were the words Pyrrha heard as soon as she met Jack on the roof.

"Wh-Wha?"

"Hello again. That's your _thing _isn't it? Just thought I'd try it out for myself."

"Oh… Goddess, so _this _is what that sounds like from the outside," Pyrrha said with a blush on her face, having never realized how corny that sounded until just then.

"Yeah, pretty much," Jack shrugged. "So, what did you want _this _time?"

"A while ago I learned something rather… _interesting_ from Jaune as I patched him up," the red-head said, her brow twitching slightly. "It turns out that he'd just recently convinced you to take him under your wing, make him stronger after what happened last week."

"It's more of a probationary thing until I learn the extent of his resolve," Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Anyway, what was it you needed to learn that you called me up to the roof a second time today?"

"I… I need to know…"

"What is it?"

"Why… Why did…?" she began pausing.

"Dammit, woman, spit it out!" Jack growled. "You called me all the way up here. The least you could do is be _ready _to say what needed being said."

"Why did Jaune come to _you_!?" the red-head suddenly screamed at him.

"Come again?" the Faunus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why did he come to _you _of all people to train him?!" she asked, a little more angry than before. "You barely _know _one another, you utterly _despise _him, yet he placed his faith in you to make him stronger! I need to know why he came to you, a complete stranger, instead of me, his own _teammate_!"

"Um, because guys are idiots, case in point, and he's got this stupid macho thing going for him?" he said tapping his own temple. "Of course, it's not like you can _blame _him or anything. Guys almost _never _talk about their emotions to the opposite sex unless they're _having _sex, or they're married. Between me and you, Jaune just thought I was the less-emasculating alternative."

"Less-_emasculating_?!" she squawked in offense.

"Like I said, 'stupid macho thing'," the Faunus re-iterated. "He was probably more-comfortable talking to me _because _I'm the same gender as him, and maybe because of the seven sisters he has at home, he was looking for a strong male role model aside from his father to latch onto. I don't know, I'm not a psychiatrist, and the one sister I _did _have I barely got to know, so I have _no _idea what's going through his mind at this point in time."

"So then… the reason Jaune came to you… was because it did less to hurt his pride?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I… see…"

"Speaking of which, out of total curiosity…" Jack hummed as he shifted on his feet. "_What _exactly do you see in that guy? Or rather, what did you see in him at _first_, before learning his dirty little secret? Because I _know _there's been some distance between you two since I caught you eavesdropping on what was meant to be a _private _conversation."

"Well…" Pyrrha coughed nervously. Given she couldn't exactly talk to _Jaune _about this sort of thing, and she _did _call him out of bed when he was clearly in the middle of a very good snooze, she decided she could trust Jack with this. "I guess what I like about him, is he's just so _different _from all the other guys I've known since I became a celebrity."

"Different _how_? Short-bus different? Repressed sexual _identity complex_ different?"

"Jaune is different, because he wasn't like _'Oh my gawd, you're Pyrrha Nikos!' _the moment he met me. To him, I was just an ordinary girl, a face in the crowd."

"…Is that all?"

"Yes."

"So… the reason you want him to notice you… is because he _doesn't _notice you…?"

"Yes."

"…_Wow_, that's really fucking shallow."

"Excuse me?" Pyrrha said sounding offended.

"You, a hot girl, who's used to _everyone _looking her way and following her day-to-day routine every waking moment, wants Jaune, a white-as-rice guy who didn't notice her, _to _notice her, because he did _not, _and other then that little tidbit you know absolutely _nothing _about him. That is just _really _shallow. You wanting him to notice you is _literally _the entire foundation of your relationship; and I use the term loosely."

"…You think I'm hot?" she said nervously brushing some hair behind her ear. Sure, she's gotten tons of creepy fanmail before, and most of what made it past the initial screening was veiled metaphors, but having someone say what they were thinking right to your face was a whole different matter altogether.

She wasn't _totally _vain, but she could enjoy a compliment or two. She _was _a woman growing into full womanhood after all.

"_That's _what you took away from what I said?" Jack asked, the red-head having the decency to blush. "Ugh… Okay, yes, objectively, I think you're hot. But romantically, I'm just not interested… You closet pervert."

"How am _I _a closet pervert!?" the Mistrali said sounding insulted.

"You eavesdropped on us because you thought Jaune was going to come out of the closet to me where nobody would hear. Who knew you were into _guy_-stuff."

"Ho-How did you know that?!" the champion recoiled. "I never told _anyone_ I thought that!"

"I didn't… _You_ just told me," Jack deadpanned, the red-head flushing up to her ears now. "_Hoooly _fucking shit, I am _really _good at this!" he whooped enthusiastically.

"Could you _not_!?"

"Hey, _you _called _me _up here, not the other way around. If I want to say something, I have the right to say it," the Faunus argued.

"I… I see…" Pyrra paused. "I guess when you put it that way… it _does _seem kind of shallow, doesn't it?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack answered, the red-head feeling as though she were just struck by an arrow.

"So then… What should I do?"

"About _what_?"

"About _Jaune_! How do I get closer to him in a way that doesn't seem shallow or convoluted? I want to get to know him better, I really _do_, I just… I don't know how I'm supposed to do that," Pyrrha answered as she shrunk in on herself, indecisiveness written all over her face. Honestly, for someone as skilled as her, it looked totally alien.

"Uh… _Talk _to him for one," Jack deadpanned. "Get to know him as a _person _instead of the guy that doesn't blatantly undress you with their eyes. You know, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, all that bullshit."

"Oh… I… see… You're very to-the-point, aren't you?"

"People barely listen to what a Faunus has to say _as-is_. Like I have the luxury of padding my words."

"Ah… I guess I'm just so used to people hanging on my every word, that I never considered how things would be for someone who _doesn't _have that kind of relationship with the public."

"Clearly," Jack deadpanned. "Anyway, you basically called me up here to ask why Jaune came to _me _for his training instead of you?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Have I answered your question satisfactorily?"

"Yes, you have."

"Alright then. So can I leave now?"

"O-Oh, yes, of course. I didn't really need you for anything else."

"I see…" Jack hummed, not totally liking the way her eyes were darting around. "If that's all, I'll see you later."

"Right, later…" she said as the Faunus moved to walk past her. "…Wait!" she suddenly blurted out.

"Oh for fuck's sake, _what_?!"

"Um… Is there any way I can join you for Jaune's training? I think maybe he'd be more willing to talk to me if it helped pass the time."

"I ain't his babysitter. Just tell him I shoehorned _you _into being his personal trainer, because _I _had better things to do."

"Oh… Well… What should I have him do then?"

"Anything. _Literally _anything," Jack deadpanned. "Remember, he's a guy who didn't put even a _modicum _of effort into coming to this school. First and foremost, he needs to get off his lazy, transcript-faking ass, and actually do some hard work. He's barely earned the right to stand at the _starting line_, let alone compete with the _rest _of us."

"I see… When you put it in a metaphor like that, I suppose it makes a great deal of sense," Pyrrha answered as the image came to her head; one where all the freshmen for the Hunters-in-Training had already begun running track, and Jaune had only just _then _gotten his shoes onto the starting blocks. "Thank you for your time," she said bowing slightly to him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see you later Big Red."

"Big… Red?"

"Oh my god, _seriously_!? A nickname is _that _alien to you, that _that's _how you react?!"

"I'm sorry! It's just… that was a new one is all."

"…Wow. Just… wow," the Faunus deadpanned before going down the stairs.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I'm back."

"Hey, Jack. Where'd you wander off to?" Yang asked.

"Pyrrha just wanted to get a quick comment out of me. Nothing worth writing home about," the Faunus shrugged. At the very least, he could get Jaune off of his back for most days, and put Pyrrha on the right track to pursuing a _healthy _relationship with her leader. Providing she found something _worthwhile _to be attracted to that is. "Anything of note happen while I was out?"

"Not really. It was mostly Ruby arguing with Weiss about why she couldn't wear her red hood with her Sports Day uniform," she said jabbing a thumb at the first two letters of RWBBY. Instead of their school uniforms, they were now wearing what appeared to be their Freshmen Fitness Day uniforms, which consisted of loose-fitting white V-neck T-shirts with dark green collars and trim at the sleeves, white sneakers… and dark green legless bloomers. Weiss was attempting to seize Ruby's signature hood from her person, and Ruby was refusing to give it up like a child with their safety blanket.

"I still think those uniforms are kinda fetish-y," the Faunus deadpanned. "The shirts I get, but the _bloomers_? I think that's pushing the envelope just a little bit," he sighed. At the very least, his uniform came with dark green knee-length shorts and even a new pair of sneakers, so why did the girls have to wear _bloomers_?

"Well it isn't like we can wear our _school _uniforms. Those largely constrict our movements and would be counterproductive to a testing of our physical ability," Blake commented from the side.

"Blake, just because something like that appeared in your Ninjas of Love: School Days limited-edition novel, doesn't automatically make you an expert on the subject."

"How-How did you _know _about that?!" the black-haired beauty squawked as she threw herself over the bookcase, using her body to hide a certain book with a false cover.

" . . . I _didn't_. I was totally _joking_," Jack deadpanned. "Seriously, I just pulled that name out my ass, and it was _legit_? Who the hell _writes _that garbage?"

"Ninjas of Love is not _garbage_! It's _art_!" Blake defended as she clutched her book to her chest.

"Yeah, _sure _it is," Jack drawled, Blake getting up on her tiptoes and pressing her forehead against his, arcs of lightning boring into his own while _he _didn't _give _a fu-

_***Knock*Knock***_

"I'll get it," Yang said getting up. "Oh, Professor Goodwitch? What are _you _doing here?"

"Professor, should you really be moving around?" Ruby asked suddenly shoving her way past her sister.

"I'm fine, Ms. Rose," Glynda waved off. "Thanks to you, I'm much better than I would've been without your assistance," she added with a small smile on her face. "However, my health isn't the reason I'm here."

"Then why _are _you here?" Weiss asked as she sat on her bed, not wanting to be seen pulling on Ruby's hood like a toddler.

"I'm here to pick up Mr. Braxton," the woman said looking the Faunus' way, whom stood to full height and caused Blake to fall forward on her face with a yelp of- _"Sonbitch!"_

"What did you do _this _time?" the heiress asked with a scowl on her face.

"Nothing! Jeez!" Jack yelped.

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble or anything," Glynda said holding up her hand. "Ozpin merely wanted to have a word with you, is all."

"What about?" Jack asked with crossed arms.

"It isn't my place to say," Glynda returned. "If you're busy, I can come back for you later. However, Ozpin was quite insistent that I escort you to his office personally."

"No, my schedule just cleared up, so I'll see the cocoa-addict now," Jack shrugged. "Oh! Before I go, I want you to settle a bet for me," he said gesturing for Glynda to come closer. "Those uniforms that Ruby and Weiss are wearing… Are they legitimate, or a senior prank?" he asked pointing at the bloomer-clad Ruby and Weiss.

"Those uniforms are perfectly legitimate," Glynda answered without pause as she adjusted her glasses, Jack's jaw dropping while Blake pumped her fist, before flushing bright red and hiding her face behind her book. "That choice of uniform was made to offer maximum flexibility and freedom of movement while also preventing overheating."

"I… see…" Jack returned with a twitching eyebrow. "Wait for me outside, I'll be out in a minute," he replied. Glynda stepping out of the room, Jack slowly turned his head to face Blake. "Not… a… _word_…"

"G-Got it," Blake squeaked under the golden-amber eyes staring at her through the shadows that inexplicably wrapped themselves around his face.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**A few minutes later…**

" . . . It wouldn't hurt to put some elevator music in here," Jack said idly as he and Glynda took the elevator ride up. The _looooong _elevator ride up.

" . . . "

"Are you still mad about two days ago?"

" . . . "

"If it's about that, I honestly meant every word of it. I wasn't lying just so I could get under your skin," the Faunus replied without an ounce of shame.

" . . . "

"C'mon, don't tell me no-one's ever complimented you before. _Look _at you," he said making a picture frame with his index finger and thumbs. "Pyrrha Nikos has _nothing _on you."

At this, Glynda flushed slightly, but quickly schooled her features.

"You can stop me if this is getting too personal, but in all honesty, you're _smoking _hot, and if you ever want some student-teacher action with no strings attached to relieve some stress, call me up. I'll botch a test or something, ask for tutoring at your place, and nobody has to be the wiser."

"…You'd do that for me?" Glynda asked, before clapping a hand over her mouth with an utterly embarrassed look on her face once she realized she'd said that out _loud_.

"Sure. After all, any of us could be dead tomorrow, and you wouldn't want to die wound up tighter than a watch spring, right?" Jack said taking her reply in stride. "Stress is the number-one performance-killer in our occupation. If you're too stressed to think straight, then you aren't at your best."

"You… I mean, we couldn't… It wouldn't be _proper_," Glynda flushed, before suddenly wondering what the _hell _was coming out of her mouth!

"There honestly isn't anything in the Beacon Academy rulebooks _prohibiting _student-teacher relations. I think we're just expected to be professional about it, since fighting Grimm and saving lives is a very stress-inducing job, and too much stress can become a health-detriment. Stop you from doing your job if you have to worry about an _ulcer _or something."

"I see… I wasn't aware of that," Glynda said as she flickered through her Teacher's Scroll. Like Jack had said, there weren't any rules or regulations _against _student-teacher relationships, which she found _really _surprising. What was even _more _surprising, was that teachers had a _lot _of flexibility in vacation days if it was for health reasons, more than she was initially aware about. "Jack… Why exactly do you _know_ about this?" she asked, the Faunus gaining a reddish tint on his cheeks.

"Uh… Well… You promise not to get mad?" he asked scratching his cheek. It wasn't that he was _embarrassed _per se, at least not completely, but he honestly thought Glynda was going to shoot him down and that'd be the end of it. He honestly only started it up because the elevator ride was so fucking _boring_.

"I didn't give you detention after… what you _did_… the other day…" Glynda choked out as she flushed at the memory of her spanking. "I could always order you to talk as your teacher," she said regaining her composure.

"No need to go that far," Jack said waving his hands. "Alright… Blatant honesty here… I've… kinda had these fantasies about you calling me in for detention, and then you and I doing… _extracurriculars_," he explained, the woman going wide-eyed at the admission. "Oh don't make that face! I _guarantee _I'm not the only guy more than half your age at this school who's ever thought along those lines before."

"Hmmm… It _would _get James off my back if I were seeing someone," Glynda muttered out loud, before quickly clapping a hand over her mouth.

"No need to be embarrassed or anything. Grown women have their needs too," Jack said off-handedly. "One time in this tavern outside the Kingdoms, there was this hot dark-haired chick who-"

_***Ding***_

'_Saved by the bell,' _Glynda let out a sigh as the elevator ride finally came to an end, coughing a couple times and schooling her features before entering Ozpin's office. The hot chocolate addict would probably never let her hear the _end _of it if he found out what they were talking about. Or worse yet, he might actually _support _it! He always _was _one to poke and prod at the sensitive topics most wouldn't. That was probably why he was so popular with the general populous, but _un_popular with the politicians since he always made more work for them to do when it came to his pushing of societal reform. _'Of course… it _would _sting James' pride to know he'd been passed up for a younger man,' _she thought as she gained a contemplative look on her face, only to clap her hands onto her cheeks, snapping her out of that line of thought. _'God, has it really been that long since I-'_

"Good morning Jack. Glad you could come up on such short notice," Ozpin greeted the Faunus as he sat across from the headmaster. "Glynda, feel free to get a drink. You look quite… _thirsty_," the man chuckled, the mirthful look in his eyes causing a chill to run up the woman's spine.

'_Oh god, he _knows_! If he used that damned Semblance of his to… so help me I __**WILL**__-!'_

"So Ozpin, if I'm not in trouble, why exactly have you called me all the way up here?" the Faunus asked looking around the office. In all honesty, the clockwork moving above his head was kind of soothing. If Ozpin ever fell asleep at his desk after being lulled by the _***Tick*Tock* **_of the gears and such above, he honestly wouldn't be surprised.

"I called you here regarding your former Team," the man said drawing some files from his desk. "While they've been recovering in the ICU, they've been able to keep up with their scholastic requirements, through for obvious reasons, they're a bit behind on their _practical _lessons."

"And this has… _what _to do with me, exactly? If you think I'm going to go back to them and give them another chance, then, _hypothetically_, they might all get murdered in their sleep. By someone who isn't me," he reiterated.

"I wouldn't dream of separating you from your new Team. Not after the new bonds you'd formed," Ozpin said waving off the Faunus' concerns. "Your former teammates are almost fully recovered, right in time for Freshman Fitness Day. However, in order to participate, a very obvious shortcoming must be addressed."

"They're a bunch of racist assholes with all the personality of a dishcloth?"

" . . . I can neither confirm nor deny that sentiment," Ozpin replied after a few moments. "Anyhow, now that they've neared recovery, they will require a new teammate if they are to continue into the next semester of Beacon's curriculum."

"And _why _exactly do you need me here for that?"

"While your time with them was short, you _do _have the most in-depth knowledge of what makes them tick. Therefore, I would like to get your opinion about who in these files would best round-out your former team," he said motioning to the files in front of him.

" . . . You want _me _to select who will be their fourth man?" Jack asked as he leafed through each file, more than a dozen in total.

"Think of it more like me being… open to suggestions."

"And _who _are these people exactly?" Jack asked as he began to leaf through the files.

"Former Beacon initiates who were unable to make the cut, but had skills or ability of note. Most of them either work indirectly for the Hunter Union or have begun to find other lines of work, but I believe that most of them would respond to a call-back, I believe."

"Hmmm…" Jack hummed as he looked through the files. While the last thing he wanted was for Dominic, Ian, or Rudolph to continue their education at Beacon, he couldn't very well deny the chance for someone _else _to attend. Much less someone with _legitimate _transcripts unlike a certain blond he knew. "I like the look of this one," he said passing a file forward.

" . . . And you're sure your decision isn't influenced based on what their new team name would be called?" Ozpin replied as he looked at the name.

Jack's only response was to give a noncommittal shrug.

"Well…" Ozpin hummed. "While Terrence Timber _is _a former Beacon applicant of note, and he _has _taken to an apprenticeship within the Hunter Union, at the very least, at least _look _at the others to see if there are any other worthy applicants I should send a call-back to, on the chance that Terrence Timber isn't available."

" . . . Fine," Jack sighed as he began to look through the other files.

"Would you like some hot chocolate while you work?"

"Yes, please. And thank you."

"You're quite welcome."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

With cup of hot chocolate in hand, Jack spent the next half-hour or so leafing through the files of potential call-backs he'd been given. Sure, saddling the abbreviation **DIRT** onto his former, and _racist_, teammates would be an utter _hoot_, but this was actually a serious obligation he'd been given choice over. Call-backs were almost completely unheard of in Hunter Academies, reserved only for the most-dire of situations after the sudden deaths of students left vacancies open. Normally when a person didn't pass each Academies' initiation, it was for a reason, and they either gave up, or took an alternate career path since late starts didn't inspire consumer confidentiality.

"Alright, after looking through these files, I've arranged them into a few tiers for your perusal," Jack said gesturing to the three piles of files in front of Ozpin, the smallest to his left, the largest to his right. "On your immediate left you'll find those who I most-think would be the best addition to the D, I, and R of the former Team Dirge, simply because they would most round-out the Team, and nothing else," he tried to play off. "Directly in front of you are my second-choices, in the event that no-one from the first tier is available," he said pointing to the slightly larger stack of files in Ozpin's front. "Last but not least, is the third tier. This one's the largest because first and foremost, any _Faunus_ would simply become their whipping boys like _I _was, and you know how _that _turned out. I also triaged files into the most-undesirable category because pragmatically, I wanted to avoid too much overlap that would negatively impact versatility with changing battlefield conditions. Also, those guys are _dicks_, and I wouldn't put it past them to pressure a _female _teammate into doing favors of a certain _nature _for them, under the guise of being "for the good of the team"," he said without an ounce of shame. "I've dealt with guys like that in the past. Whenever there's a girl around, they'll do _anything _to get into her panties, so for obvious reasons, I triaged all _female _callbacks away into the third tier."

"I see… That's quite the insight you have on them," Ozpin said from his mug.

"Yeah, well, when you see nothing but the ugly side of guys like that from a weak, you don't really see them hiding all that much," Jack said taking a sip from his own mug.

"I see. I'll be sure to take your words of advice into consideration," Ozpin said pushing the files aside.

"So, is that all you needed?" Jack asked finishing off the contents of his mug.

"Not quite," Ozpin returned. "Glynda, would you mind stepping into the lounge for a few moments?" he asked as he pressed a button at his desk. The humming of gears drawing the Faunus' attention the right wall of the room, he watched as segments of the floor began to move downward until they formed a descending staircase that followed the curve of the wall. "I need to have a few words in private with Mr. Braxton."

Glynda only answered with a nod, walking down the steps before disappearing from sight entirely.

"Huh. I never would've noticed the secret staircase with that carpeting," Jack hummed.

"It helps to have a home away from home when dealing with important matters overnight," Ozpin answered.

"Well, coolness of your secret room aside, what did you need to talk to me about?" Jack asked.

"This actually relates to the _storm _I talked about the other day," he said interlacing his fingers, his features schooled into a more-serious expression.

" . . . I see," Jack hummed as he sat up in his chair. "Do you need _Jack the Ripper _to step out, run an errand for you? And just for the record, you'll need to get someone _else _to bury the bodies."

"Yes and no," Ozpin returned. "It's true that I do in fact need you for something, but I hope to _not _require the services of _Jack the Ripper," _he said making his stance on the matter clear. Having what was essentially a _hitman _running around behind the Council's back _never _looked good in any capacity. "There's a certain project I've been contemplating, ever since I admitted Ms. Rose into Beacon two years early, I was hoping you could help with it," he said pushing a Datapad forward. It was essentially a framed screen of transparent glass that was more-specialized towards holding data than the multi-purpose Scrolls most people used. Because they couldn't access the interweb, security on Datapads was _much _better than those of Scrolls; however, they were also a little on the expensive side, and most opted for the cheaper alternative. Especially since Datapads didn't collapse for easier carrying.

"Project Prodigy…" Jack hummed as he read the title. Scrolling down, he saw a summary of what Ozpin had in mind, as well as a trio of personnel profiles. "Hey wait a minute… I think I _know _this guy. He's Ruby's friend, right?" he said seeing a picture of a familiar white-haired Rabbit Faunus in what appeared to be a workshop of sorts. He appeared to be elbow-deep in what was most likely a high-powered six-barreled Gatling gun, and if the angle of the picture and the timestamp were anything to go by, this was likely a screenshot from a security camera, and thus taken without the subject's consent.

"You would be correct on that," Ozpin replied.

"And… _what _does this have to do with me exactly?"

"All the questions you might have about Project Prodigy are most-likely to be answered on the mission brief at the top of the file," Ozpin answered, prompting Jack to scroll back to the top of the Datapad. "I'd like to think I covered all my bases."

" . . . " Jack rubbed his chin as he spent a few minutes reading through the brief at the top of the file. Occasionally he'd flick the scroll wheel down, his eyes panning left to right, before he began reading the in-depth files on the three Signal students placed in front of him. After maybe twenty minutes of leafing through everything, the Faunus' eyes widened. "You want me to get these three ready for the _Vytal Festival_?" he asked with a bit of surprise. "I mean sure, I've heard of Combat School trainees _attempting _to enter the VF, but most of the time they wash out at the prelims because the ones going to the _actual _Academies are simply more-skilled."

"You've already taken steps to ensure that Ms. Rose's shortcomings are being corrected, and I heard through the grapevine that you've taken Mr. Arc under your wing, even if it's in a more… _indirect _capacity than is the norm," Ozpin answered. "Other than a teacher, you seem like the most-likely candidate for the job."

"And you want _me _to babysit these three because it'd show favoritism if you got directly involved?"

"In the sum of it, yes," Ozpin answered. "Concerning the _storm _that's coming, I'd feel better if we had more boots like Ms. Rose on the ground, should things go south. The three of them are prodigies in their respective fields, but instructors simply aren't willing to give them the one-on-one time it'd take to cultivate their respective specialties."

"So… you decided to come to _me _for this?"

"Well it isn't like you _yourself _can enter the Vytal Festival with the rest of your team," Ozpin answered, saying what needed to be said without saying it.

" . . . I see," Jack hummed as he looked down at the file again. "If for no other reason, I like the cut of this kid's jib. He and Ruby seem like a great match, but if he's going to be Ruby's boyfriend in the future, we're going to need to do something about that confidence issue of his. Rabbit Faunus have some of the best hearing in the world, and that could be a real asset if we can work around his prey instincts."

"I take it you're attempting to play matchmaker like Ms. Xiao Long?"

"Something like that," Jack shrugged. "Alright, I've got the gist of what you want from me. However… if _these _are the mission parameters for what you want me to do with these three," he said pointing to a paragraph within the Datapad. "I'm going to need an amendment made to my compensation package."

"Like…?"

"I want access for one person other than myself to _that _place," Jack said getting straight to the point. "I'm not saying you should give _them _access codes too, but that place is too big and has too much going on for one person to tackle alone. The only way I'd be able to get any work done, is to have an assistant on hand."

"So in the short of it, you want permission to bring one other person to _that _place?"

"Think of it as necessary compensation in exchange for this long-term assignment," Jack answered as he looked down at the files. "I knew from day one that a team of five wasn't going to be allowed in the four-versus-four bracket of the tournament. However, these guys are two-years-young for an Academy, so I'm going to have to really build them up, and that's going to take a lot of time and effort on my part," he explained. "In all honesty, I thought you'd wait until after Sports Day to spring something like this on me."

"An early start on this would be for the best," Ozpin returned. " . . . Very well. You have my permission to bring one other person to _that _place. I assume that'll be payment enough?"

"I'm not in a position to negotiate for _too _much more, so I'm glad you gave me _this _much," Jack said as he made to hand the Datapad back.

"Keep it. This little project of mine is mostly under-the-table, so you'll need it when you approach these three to explain why you have their profiles and contact information," Ozpin returned. "The three of them are all acquaintances of Ms. Rose, so I'm sure they'd be eager to get in on this." Digging inside his desk, he then handed a small metal case forward. "Also, here's a carrying case. You might need it."

" . . . Alright. I'll get on this as soon as I can," Jack said as he slipped the Datapad into the graciously-provided carrying case, and then slipped it into his uniform's inside pocket. "However, I won't be able to babysit them all-the-time. If this really _is _under-the-table, they're going to need to be able to train themselves while I'm not around. I can't step out _too _many times without arousing suspicion. Saying I'm stepping out to kill Grimm with my bare hands can only work so many times in succession before people start to get suspicious."

"I'll leave the management of these three in your hands," Ozpin returned with a nod. "And Jack… I apologize for having to force this responsibility on you, but-"

"Circumstances forced your hand, I get it. And I'm sure if the Council knew who you were _really _making deals with behind their backs, you'd be in some pretty hot water," he said jabbing a thumb at himself.

"Comparatively, you are the lesser of two evils," Ozpin replied. "In the face of an evil that cannot be defeated with just means… so many times in the past, I should've been willing to stain my hands with evil to destroy the greater evil. But I did not…" he said growing somber. "Instead I chose to remain steadfastly just and righteous… and all those choices have ever brought me were grief and misery as I watched friends die and disappear one by one."

" . . . I'm so sorry."

"No, it's quite alright," Ozpin said with a shake of his head. "Sometimes, if you want to make an omelet, you have to be willing to break a couple of eggs. I only wish I knew how painful those mistakes would've been later in life."

" . . . Don't worry, Ozpin. I won't abuse this trust you have in me… You have my word," Jack replied.

"I'm sure you're mostly going along with this for your own reasons, and that's perfectly alright," Ozpin replied with a shrug. "And… if it's any consolation… I'm sorry. For what happened to your mother and your sister."

" . . . You're stepping into no-man's-land," Jack growled as the corner of his mouth rose up in a snarl and his eyes flashed red. "How the hell did you even know about that? Do you have cameras in the showers or something?"

"Nothing as invasive as that. I simply know the ugly truths of the world, and what _truly _happened to the White Fang five years ago," the man answered.

" . . . I see," Jack huffed with crossed arms. "I assume that the reason you didn't spread the _truth _of that day around, is because it'd do more harm than good?"

"Unfortunately, that is the case. Such a shocking and horrifying revelation would potentially draw Grimm to the Kingdoms by the thousands, if not millions."

"I see…" Jack huffed as he drummed his fingers on his armrest. "Tell me, Oz. Have you ever wanted to watch the world burn? Did society as a whole ever take something so precious from you, that you wanted to destroy everything in sight?"

"More times than I can count," Ozpin replied.

"I see… I guess even people as powerful as you feel that way at times too," Jack sighed. _*SIGH*_ "That's enough dredging up the past. Did you need any _other _favors from me?"

"No. For the time being, all you should have to worry about is Project Prodigy, unless push comes to shove," Ozpin replied as he glanced at the monitor on his desk.

"I see."

"Thank you for indulging an old man's selfish request," the man said bowing his head slightly.

"Hey, as long as it gets me top-shelf brand, I'm not complaining," Jack shrugged.

"Pragmatic to the end I see," Ozpin said as he adjusted his glasses. "Glynda, could you come up for a moment? I'd like to have a word with you before you escort Mr. Braxton back to the lobby," he said pressing a button on the intercom to his left.

"Of course, Ozpin."

"Thank you, Glynda," Ozpin returned. "Jack, if you could, would you mind holding the elevator? This will only take a couple minutes."

"Sure, I don't mind," Jack said stepping out of his chair as he made his way to the elevator, the blond professor ascending from the lounge on the floor below before standing before the Headmaster.

"What do you need to talk to me about?" Glynda asked getting straight to the point.

"It concerns a certain… _topic _that came up during the long ride here," the man said interlacing his fingers in front of himself.

"If you're concerned about a potential scandal, you can rest easy. I treasure Beacon's reputation too much to indulge in-"

"That's not where I'm going with this," Ozpin cut her off, motioning to the seat across from him. "As Huntsmen and Huntresses, we all live a very stressful lifestyle. As such, the Hunter Union has become quite liberal in how we manage that stress. Why, I remember when _I _was a student at Beacon, there was this one teacher whom asked me-"

"That's… not necessary to tell me about," Glynda said knowing that if Ozpin had even _half _the propensity for story-telling that Port did, she was going to be sitting there for a long while.

"The point I want to make is, we _all _have urges. Some of us bury them with work, and if that works, then good for them. However, some of us don't quite have that luxury, and it's alright to sate them, those kinds of urges are perfectly natural."

"I'm a grown woman, Ozpin. You don't have to talk to me like a schoolgirl going through puberty," Glynda said crossing her arms.

"All I'm saying is… An opportunity like you've been presented with doesn't come up every day," Ozpin explained as he held up his hands. "You can put this off all you want, but if you let your stress build to a critical moment, you could become compromised at a crucial juncture because you've become wound up too tightly."

"Are we _honestly _having this conversation right now?" Glynda asked as she ruminated on the rather _scandalous _nature of what Ozpin was suggesting. He was just being so blasé about it… she wasn't sure whether to take him seriously or not.

"Look… I'm not telling you that you have to become his _girlfriend_, or that you have to shout it from the rooftops for everyone to hear that you've had satisfying intercourse." The way he said that caused Glynda to flush bright red. "All I'm saying is, there's nothing wrong with a little intimacy between two people in the same stress-inducing occupation that have a certain attraction towards one another, even if it's strictly physical in nature," he said, sounding like he was looking out for her in his own, _really _weird way. "Jack honestly doesn't seem like the type to lie. He'll withhold information about himself, yes, but then again we _all _do, as is our right. Any compliments Jack has directed towards you are most-likely genuine, and well… You know how boys can be at that age."

"Ugh… Qrow," the woman grumbled under her breath, remembering how many times that drunkard had come onto her in her youth. Sure, James did the same, but at least Qrow didn't beat around the bush about it. Though even if it came down to being the last woman on Remnant with just the two of them… she'd rather be celibate.

"So yes, I doubt Jack would lie about his preferences. I'm certain his attraction to you is completely genuine."

"You _know _how this probably sounds, right? You're basically telling me to sleep with one of my own students so my stress levels don't get too high," Glynda said with arms crossed. She knew that his words from the elevator were meant to make her feel young, and were probably his way of _saying _she didn't look as old as she was, but in all honesty he was old enough to be her _son_! What would people think if she turned out to be some kind of… of _cougar_? What if something so commonplace in Human vernacular caused some kind of race war with the Faunus because they got super-offended by her conduct?

"I never said anything about _sex_," Ozpin waved off, Glynda levelling a flat stare at him. "Intimacy can come in many forms. The two of you could have coffee in your office, or watch movies in your room, or simply talk to one another and be shoulders to lean upon. While I'm sure Jack would be _thrilled _to scratch any hypothetical itches you might, _or might not_, have… I also envision him having the capacity to be your _friend_. Someone to talk to, and share stories with when the others prove to be a bit too… eccentric."

"And what about all the times he antagonized me, bringing up race so he could get what he wanted?"

"Oh, that was just him pushing your buttons a little. I'm sure deep down he respects your authority, and just wants you to treat him like _Jack_, and not a Honey Badger Faunus."

"Maybe…" Glynda said crossing her arms.

"And besides," Ozpin said sipping from his mug. "I'm sure if you told James that you had taken Jack… _under your wing _as it were, that it would most-definitely hurt his pride a little, and get him to ease off on his thinly-veiled advances."

"H-How… How did you-?"

"Minds are just like books, Glynda. They're easy to read if you know how," Ozpin answered.

"Of course they are," the woman huffed as she rubbed her eyes. For a moment it looked like the background behind him had turned into a blend of black-and-blue while red flames rose from his body. "Is that all you wanted to talk about?" she asked as she blinked the sight away.

"No. We're quite done here. In fact, I think Jack's gotten a little impatient," the man chuckled, Glynda looking over her shoulder to see Jack staring at the ceiling, tapping his foot as the door bumped repeatedly into his foot. Getting up, just as Glynda had pushed up the chair and got ready to leave- "Oh, one more thing."

"Yes, Ozpin?"

"If you ever want to borrow the teacher's lodge up in the mountains… Be sure to give me one week's notice," the silver-haired man said with a completely straight face. "That way I can have the pantry stocked for two."

"Goodbye, Ozpin," Glynda said hitting the emergency exit button for that conversation. Walking into the elevator, Jack stepped aside and allowed the woman to press the **L** button for the lobby. The ride down seemed even slower than the ride up, and the lack of elevator music was all the more glaring. "Jack?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"About what you said earlier… Did you really mean it?"

"Aboooout me having fantasies about you within the confines of a school environment, or that I'd be totally cool with storming the trenches in a completely noncommittal way?"

"…I guess?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I just wanted to know… What if I _wasn't _looking for a sexual partner at this point in time?"

"Then I'd have to respect your decision, never bring it up again, and pretend our conversation on the way up never happened."

"…Wait, really?" Glynda asked with a raised eyebrow, not expecting that straight an answer.

"Yes, _really_," Jack groaned, sounding as though he were insulted. "Yes, Glynda, I get it. I'm a teenage guy on the cusp of adulthood who's swimming in testosterone. We're _all _like that. But just because I've been very _adventurous _in recent years, doesn't mean I don't know what the word '_No'_ means. If you're not interested, then you're not interested, and I'm totally cool with that. If I tried to push the matter, I'd be a total creep, which I'm not, so I won't."

"Well, that's… very mature of you."

"Thank you."

"I have to ask though… Wouldn't you rather direct your attention towards your _peers _than… me? Why even approach me in… _that way_, in the first place?"

"Ruby's like my little sister, and she's three years younger than me so I'd feel really dirty at the prospect. Weiss has no romantic inclination towards someone not of her own species, and I'm sure she'd be most-interested in someone of a similar societal background to herself. Blake, I somewhat dislike for purely personal reasons that I'd rather not go into. As for Yang… Sure, she's _flirted _with me, but she hasn't made _any _indication of wanting to be in a _committed _relationship with me," Jack listed off. "Pyrrha's head-over-heels for Jaune… for _whatever _reason, and despite whatever innuendos we might've exchanged the other day, Nora's strictly in Ren's court, and I ship them. And just so all avenues are completely exhausted, no, I'm not even remotely interested in same-sex relationships, so you can rule out my male peers altogether."

"I see…" Glynda stated. _'I can't believe I'm about to _say _this out _loud_,' _she thought to herself. "Jack… I'd like to be honest with you about something," she said tapping a few buttons on her Scroll, the elevator momentarily stopping, holographic **Out Of Order **signs appearing over all the elevator doors in the tower. "I don't exactly have suitors lining up to court me, despite how… physically appealing I might seem," she said grouping for the right words that didn't make her sound vain. "Most men are too intimidated by me to approach me, and those that _do _either only want one thing, or are completely insufferable as human beings, and I can't stand them. What I _want _to say is, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread this around-"

"My lips are sealed. I can keep a secret."

"How about we… try and be _friends _first, and see how things progress from there? I don't think it's completely within my _character _to have a noncommittal relationship like you suggest, especially with someone half my age," she said fidgeting with her skirt like she did when she was a schoolgirl. "But… it wouldn't hurt to be cordial with one another, and I don't find you… _un_attractive or anything."

"Hey, as long as you tell me stories from your work as a Huntress before you became a teacher whenever we meet up, it isn't like I'll be _lying _when I say I'm coming to you for wisdom as my more-experienced peer," Jack replied. "And as long as you _don't _fidget like a horny schoolgirl whenever you talk to me in class, I doubt people will even notice. They're kinda _stupid _that way," he said thinking back to… _all _the funny inter-web videos where people would hurt themselves; most commonly after saying- "Hold my beer." "Oh, and Glynda?"

"Yes?"

"…I think this is the most relaxed you've ever been since I've known you," Jack said looking up at her. "It looks good on you," he added with a smile.

"Well, it _is _good to get these things off your chest every once in a while," Glynda said with a small smile. _'Even if I never thought I'd be having _this _conversation in a million years,'_ she admitted to herself.

"And _what a _chest it is," Jack said before slapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry. Didn't mean to say it out loud."

"…I'll take that one as a compliment. Thank you," Glynda said giving an exaggerated curtsey.

"Well then… You're welcome," Jack returned. "…Sooo… How long are you going to stop the _elevator _for?" he asked a minute later after realizing they hadn't moved an inch in either direction. "Not that I wouldn't be _willing _to do it in an elevator, but maybe we should have dinner first. Plus that handlebar doesn't look very comfortable."

"O-Oh, right," Glynda realized, tapping her buttons and rescinding the lockdown on the elevator. The enclosed space shuddering, it began its slow descent back to ground level. It was still several floors down to the ground level, and the elevator didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, so in a move that surprised even her, she turned to the Faunus and hugged him to her chest, his eyes resting before her cleavage.

"Glynda…?"

"Even if it's just your hormones talking, thank you… for making me feel young and pretty again," Glynda said stroking his hair. _'God, that was corny,' _she chuckled to herself.

"Don't sell yourself short," Jack returned as he pat her back, not knowing if it was appropriate to return the hug _wholesale _at that moment or not. "You're a strong, confident woman, and you're in very great shape, so you won't _look your age _for a really long time."

"Hmhm. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

_***Ding***_

The two separating at speeds that'd make Ruby green with envy, Jack ran from the building as though he'd rather be anywhere else, he and Glynda going in opposite directions the moment they were outside, passerby none the wiser to the bond of friendship that had been formed that day.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So Jack, what did Ozpin need you for?" Ruby asked once he got back.

"He just needed some help on deciding what to do with my old team," Jack said as he stashed his Datapad in his schoolbag.

"_Those _assholes?" Yang growled. "I say we boot them out of Beacon and be done with it."

"It's not that simple," Weiss interjected. "It's true that they're utterly despicable as human beings, but a great deal of time and effort went into instructing them during their time here. It isn't as easy as giving them the boot after getting the training they've had. They represent a somewhat-significant investment on Vale's part, and it wouldn't look good to simply throw that away."

"So what's going to happen to them?" Blake asked.

"They're going to be getting a fourth member from previous Initiates that didn't quite make the cut."

"What, like a call-back?"

"In the short of it, yes."

"And if they decide to pull something again?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Then I just re-break the bones that just healed," Jack said as he cracked his knuckles.

"_Re_-break? But aren't they already healed?" Ruby asked.

"Even when healed-over, past injuries are still present in the body. The damage from a broken bone won't completely disappear," Blake answered.

"Right," Jack answered. "Broken bones, even when healed over, while stronger, also form structural weak points within the body. Those weak points in turn can be exploited."

"Yeah, and this time you'll have the rest of Team Ruby behind you!" Yang said throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Let's see how cocky those guys are when _they're _outnumbered."

"Yeah! I won't forgive them even if they _beg _for mercy!" Ruby growled trying to look intimidating. However, because she was wearing her hood and bloomers, it only served to make her adorable, like a puppy growling at a bigger dog.

"You'd probably be more-intimidating if you weren't wearing bloomers," Jack deadpanned.

"Hey, they _are _regulation," Blake shrugged.

"Oh go eat a bag of tuna," the Faunus bit out.

"So… It's still a while until dinner. What do you guys want to do?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing. After the day we've had yesterday, we aren't going to do _anything_," Weiss said crossing her arms. "We were lucky to come out of that fight with the Ursa Major with as few injuries as we did. Next time, we might not be so lucky, so we aren't going to do _anything _strenuous."

" . . . Can we go watch TV in the student lounge?" Yang suggested.

" . . . Fine. We can do _that_," the heiress huffed. In all honesty, she never got to watch TV like other girls at her prep-school because her father said it rotted the brain, but she _wasn't _under his thumb now. If she wanted to watch some mind-numbing television, she could very well do that.

"To the student lounge!" Ruby said hopping onto Jack's shoulders and pointing forward.

"Ruby, get down from there this instant!" Weiss squawked at the bloomer-clad girl.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After a couple hours of mind-numbing television re-runs, Teams RWBBY and JNPR eventually reconvened at the cafeteria for dinner. Most of the food on the buffet line were in shades of red, pointing towards the Ingredients' origins in the Forever Fall Forest, where almost _everything_ had a bright or dark-red coloration from the flora to the fauna. It wasn't only the future Huntsmen and Huntresses that had gone there, but also the future Bishoku-ya on the hunt for exclusive Ingredients. The sweet smell of red sap and autumn leaves filled the air as everyone filled their plates.

"Man, yesterday was _crazy_," Nora sighed as she poured Red Sap onto her pancakes.

"Quite," Ren said picking at his Red Lettuce salad. "I honestly thought when that Ursa Major lunged at our ship, that we were done for."

"Well, I think what's important, is that we all came out of that adventure of ours in one piece, and are now all the stronger for it," Pyrrha said with a light smile.

"Hey Jaune, what happened to your face?" Ruby asked the blond who had a bag of peas bandaged to the left side of his face.

"I… uh…"

"_You fell down some stairs," _Jack mouthed out.

"I fell down some stairs," the blond answered out.

"Oh…" Ruby hummed. "Well, I hope you get better soon."

"Yeah. Me too," Jaune returned as he got back to his meal.

"Sooo…" Pyrrha said trying to find something to talk about. "Jack, how are your injuries?"

"Much better now that I'm getting some _real _food in," Jack said biting into some Red Hair Boar cutlets. "Other than that, most of my aches and pains are _spiritual _in nature."

"Well, after what you lived through, a weary spirit is only to be expected," Ren stated as he drank his tea.

"Still, was using Dust Synergy with your kind of Semblance _really _the only way out of that?" Pyrrha asked.

"Nothing else we had was hard-hitting enough to handle a Higher B-Class Grimm like that," Weiss answered. "While not ideal, at the very least, I'm glad that things worked out the way they did."

"Yeah, but now Team Ruby needs to start training _extra _hard! Not only for Sports Day this Friday, but also because we need to pull our own weight," Ruby said with a bright smile.

"Yeah, so don't go stealing all our kills," Yang said ribbing Jack with her elbow.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," the Faunus replied as he took another bite of his cutlet.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Phew! I'm stuffed!" Ruby sighed contently as she rubbed her stomach.

"Ruby, try to show a little decorum!" Weiss squawked as some of the third and fourth-year girls giggled in Ruby's direction.

"Oh, it's _fine_, Weisscream," Yang said throwing an arm over the girl's shoulders. "I'm just glad… that we can share meals again like this," the blond said with a somber expression on her face, the group going silent as they thought of how _different _things could've gone.

_***Bonk***_

"Ow!" Yang squawked as she held her head.

"Don't go writing me off yet. I won't die _that _easily," Jack said after rapping Yang on the head with his knuckles.

"Then you shouldn't take so many unnecessary risks like that," Weiss huffed.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Jack sighed. "So, what plans do you guys have for the rest of your evening?"

"I'm going to calibrate my sweetheart, see if I can't modify her for variable round armament," Ruby answered, planning on giving the Crescent Rose the ability to handle much larger and harder-hitting sniper rounds.

"I think I'll take a walk in the gardens, relax a little," Weiss said as she headed off. As a little girl, she always enjoyed the Schnee family gardens, and Beacon had flowers from all over the world for those who took the time to enjoy the simple things.

"I'm gonna head down to the garage. Maybe take my baby for a ride before bed," Yang said with a shrug going her own way.

"I guess I'll settle down with a good book," Blake shrugged. Just as she was about to make her way back to her room, Jack tapped her shoulder. "Yes?"

"I might be able to help you on that front."

"In what way?" she questioned.

"Follow me, and don't ask any questions until we get there," he said jabbing a thumb behind himself. Blake raised an eyebrow at him, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and follow him, making their way towards the Library. A little extra trust between teammates could mean the difference between life and death after all.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I'm… bu… wha… thi…"

"Use your _words_, Blake."

"This is _incredible_!" the black-haired beauty squealed once they arrived at the Ancient Library.

"Theeeere we go."

"Look at all these _books_! And tomes! And _scrolls_, honest-to-goodness scrolls, on real _paper_!" the young woman said with a broad smile on her face as she spun around, taking everything in. "Book bindings from every country, do you know how many topics could be _down _here?"

"Glad to see you're having such a good time."

"Hundreds! Maybe even _thousands_!" the girl said with stars in her eyes as though she'd suddenly become Ruby's blood-sister in the last five minutes. "Look at how old some of these are, yet so perfectly _preserved_! There could be tomes from Kingdoms nobody even remembers the _names _of! Half of these you'd probably only ever find in a _museum_, or some rich guy's private _collection_!"

"I think this is the most you've talked all at once since I've met you."

"How on earth did you convince Ozpin to give you access to this… this… this _wonderland _of academia?" Blake asked as she took in the atmosphere of the ancient library.

"Well, it took me a _lot _of favors, though the biggest help was getting on the man's good-side," Jack said in a half-truth. It took a lot of favors, but those were future favors Ozpin was asking of _him_. As for getting on his good side, that probably _helped_, though Ozpin may've also given him access because otherwise most of these would remain unopened. "However, I cannot stress enough, the sheer _importance _of keeping your mouth shut about this. If anyone asks, we either went to the library to study, or you asked me to help you train with your Semblance. You, me, and Ozpin could get in a _lot _of trouble if it ever got out we were down here."

"Jack, this is _me _we're talking about. I don't know about everyone else, but _I _can definitely keep a secret," she said facing him before her expression grew more somber. "That still begs the question though… Why _me_? Why ask _me _down here? We're not even that _close_, and if memory serves correctly, this-" she said pointing to her bow "-was basically a slap in the face to you. So I'll ask again, why _me _when you're so much closer to everyone else."

"Well, given all the options I had… you actually kind of _were _the only option," Jack admitted. "Let's start with our leader, Ruby Rose. Sure, she's always bright-eyed and bushy-tailed like she's on a sugar high, and I'm sure if I asked for her help on this she'd come with me in a heartbeat… but the fact is, Ruby is _far _from the academic type. If she were down here, all she'd see is a bunch of "_smelly old books"_ that wouldn't be able to hold her interest for more than five minutes. Honestly, if I brought her down here, she'd probably spend all her time reading Weapons Magazine or making a mess after tinkering with her sweetheart."

"I can definitely see where you're coming from," Blake hummed, imagining Ruby groaning and moaning about how it was "sooooo boring" down there. "What about Weiss? She's smart, and probably the only person who likes books as much as I do. Plus, you two have gotten… _closer_, in the last few days. Why didn't _she _make the cut? Not that I'm _complaining _or anything. This is a _great _opportunity."

"Weiss is smart, and an academic, that much is certainly true. However, some if not _all _of these texts cover topics that involved research which was… morally _ambiguous _in nature. In all honesty, the fact that some of these have been _labeled _as "forbidden", on its own would be enough to make Weiss wash her hands of this place entirely."

"Yeah… I can see how she'd be a bit of a mood-killer in this kind of environment," Blake hummed. "She _does _come across as the self-righteous type, more-willing to surrender to evil and remain good, than stain herself with evil to destroy a _greater _evil."

"And _Yang_? Well… She might not be a _dumb _blond, but she's not academic in the _typical _sense. Hell, like Ruby, the first thing she'd probably say is "smelly old books", and she's one bad papercut-induced temper tantrum away from lighting half this place on fucking fire. Remember last week when she couldn't wrap her head around the difference between the poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms?"

"_**RRRRRRrgh… Dammit! All these shrooms look the fucking **_**same**_**!" **_*FWOOOOOOOM*

"Yeah… Yang can get a little hot-headed when she's faced with something she can't understand too well," Blake admitted. "I'm guessing you aren't close-enough to anyone on Team Juniper to have any of _them _be your study-buddy?"

"I hate Jaune's guts on a deeply professional, _and _personal level. 'Nuf said. Nora… she's… well…"

"_Nora._"

"Nora, yes."

"Pyrrha?"

"Nah. Other than fighting Grimm, the only time she's fought other Humans was for _sport_. She doesn't realize that honor doesn't mean a thing once you're dead. No, we'd only get into a flame war about what's right and what's wrong about what's in these materials and why we shouldn't use them and blah blah-blah blah _blah_," Jack said rolling his head. "In short, she isn't like _us_, who grew up outside the Kingdoms. Her morals are too squeaky-clean to let her even _contemplate _using these forbidden works for our benefit."

"Ren?"

"My _second _choice, actually, but it'd look less-suspicious if I kept this arrangement within the Team."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Blake hummed.

"And then there's _you_."

"Me?"

"Yes, _you_," Jack stated. "While it's true I dislike what you're _doing_, and for what reasons, I can at the least _tolerate _you as a person. And if we're going to be working together for the next four years, we might as well get along. Maybe _someday _I can get over the bow, and maybe when things get better, you can take it off and walk with your head held high."

"So what you're saying is… you want to _try _and get along with me?"

"That's the gist of it yes," Jack stated. "We might disagree on a few things, but I don't _hate _you. That's reserved for racists, rapists, and racist rapists."

"I see," Blake hummed. "So… What do we look at first?"

"Well _first _off, this place is a fucking mess. Everything's completely disorganized, so we're going to have to lay down a little groundwork."

"Meaning…?"

"First, we have to organize everything by language, because that's the biggest barrier we're bound to run into. Once we get _that _out of the way, we can get to the good stuff. There's too many varying subjects to organize them all by _that _criterion, so what's important is that we do this much. Everything will be infinitely easier afterward"

"I see. Well then," Blake said rolling up her sleeves. "Let's get to work. I'm really stoked about seeing what's in these books. This is like a bibliophile's _dream_."

"Just don't have any _wet _dreams while reading Ninjas of Love, and we'll be fine."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

To prevent things from getting _too _boring, Blake put her Scroll on the table and played some soft jazz to get a rhythm going, the acoustics in the room surprisingly good, though she kept the volume low so the music wouldn't echo upstairs.

From there, the two of them would empty shelves onto the tables in the center aisle, sort out the ones written in English, and put them back on the shelves closest to the front. After repeating this for a few shelves, only a cursory glance required to determine which books were in which languages, they'd gotten everything on the left aisle that was in English on the forward most shelves, but even then, that was a _lot_. From what was in the center tables, Jack would go on to organize what was in German behind the English, having a rudimentary understanding of that language, while Blake set the Italian onto the shelves behind that. When it came to the Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Latin, and other languages, they did their best to organize them out, being sure to stagger shelves for new additions. It wasn't like they could make a _formal _organization system, since most of these books were _banned_, and organizing would leave a paper trail, but based on what they saw as they began organizing it out, this arrangement looked really promising.

"Hey, Blake. What are you looking at there?" Jack asked as he carried a stack of books toward the back, Blake's nose buried in an old leather-bound tome.

"Alchemy," she said turning a page, a smile on her face as she took it all in.

"What, you mean like the _turn-coal-into-gold _alchemy?"

"Yeah… I honestly thought that was a _myth_, but looking at these notes, I feel like we could really _learn _something from these old books," Blake said with glee, her golden-amber eyes taking in the text, diagrams, and formulas. "And this is just _one _book. Imagine what _else _we could find down here if these are actually _legit _and not just theory?"

"Keep it in your booty-shorts, Blake. We still need to lay down the groundwork. _Then _we can play, so put that book to the side and get back to work."

"Ugh, _yes _Jack," Blake sighed as she closed the book and got back to work organizing, countless piles of tomes and scrolls laid out on the tables down the center aisle before her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Whew!" Blake sighed after a couple more hours of work, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I don't think I've handled that many books in my life," she sighed leaning back in her chair.

"It was one night's work, but I think we did a pretty good job," Jack said as he looked down the left aisle. The shelves were notably less congested, and there were empty shelves staggering those which were filled, and while they stretched further toward the back of the room than before, at least there was some order to the chaos. "We aren't _quite _done with the left aisle yet, but after this we'll be able to hit up the right," he said looking at all the piles of books and scrolls still on the tables in the center aisle, then to the massively-congested shelves of books on the right aisle.

"Yeah…" the brunette sighed. "While I _would _like nothing more than to bury my nose into a good book and learn some really _interesting _stuff… I can agree that organizing all this out now, will save us a lot of headaches in the long run."

"Right. We'll leave the stuff in the right aisle _on _the right, so that way everything isn't all in one place and it's a bit spread out. Plus, whoever organized this before us must've put it there for a reason. Probably."

And the last person who _had _been there before them, must've been there _way _back. Some of the books had a finger's-width of dust over them, as did some of the shelves. On more than one occasion, the two of them had broken out into fits of coughing from all the dust they'd disturbed and had to take five-minute breaks until it settled. That just begged the question… who dusted everywhere _else _in this place if not on the books?

"Sounds like a plan," she said looking back down into her book, her back towards him with the entrance to the front.

"You're _really _into that Alchemy stuff, aren't you?"

"Wouldn't _you _be?" Blake asked. "The ability to re-shape anything at will, into any other form… The possibilities for the applications are _limitless_."

"Just be sure to put the book down if you start feeling like experimenting on living subjects. I'm pretty sure at least _some _of these books are haunted."

"Pht! _Haunted_?" Blake asked skeptically. "_Seriously_?"

"Hey, almost everyone in this school has supernatural powers that come from the Soul. Since ghosts ARE souls, they could very well exist. Hell, you hang around the remains of old Kingdoms and you're _bound _to see or hear things you can't explain."

" . . . Fair point," Blake conceded. "Honestly, I've found hard proof for more than a dozen different myths and legends that I thought were purely fiction. And that's only in the English, Italian, and what little of the Japanese I can read. Who knows what's in the _rest _of these books."

"Yes, well, I wouldn't trust Translating software to most of this, since one wrong move and we could get turned inside-out or something."

"That would _not _be pleasant," Blake hummed as she looked at a rather intricate diagram. Something called the **Sephirothic Tree of Life**. "Brrrrr! Did it suddenly got _cold _in here or is that just me?" she shivered as a frigid gust of wind washed over her. "Is there a draft in here or something?" she asked aloud, the hairs in the back of Jack's neck standing on end as he mechanically turned his head.

"Blake…" he said as the lanterns in the back half of the library slowly went out, his partner so engrossed in her book she didn't even notice. "I think it's time you headed back to the room, got some sleep," he said trying to keep his voice level as his Faunus night vision caught sight of a lone figure striding towards them from the darkness.

"C'mon Jack, just _one _more page?" the brunette whined like a child in the middle of their favorite late-night TV program. "I promise, we can head back as soon as I'm done," she promised, so engrossed in what she was reading that she completely tuned everything else out.

"Let me repeat myself," Jack before turning around and clamping his hands down on her shoulders, the figure in the darkness slowly striding towards them. **"Blake. I think it's time you headed back to the room, got some sleep," **he said in a deeper, commanding tone, a shiver running up the girl's spine.

"You…" Blake gulped, remembering where she'd last heard that tone from. "You're…!" she gawped with wide eyes as a memory steeped in blood flashed to the fore of her mind.

"**Going to clean up a little more, and be right behind you," **he ordered. **"Don't turn around. Just face the door, and **_**leave**_**," **he ordered, the Faunus girl nodding her head as she shut the book, hastily making her way back up the stairs, not looking back.

"**Huhuhu… I see you decided to use **_**the voice **_**on her, didn't you?" **the figure in the darkness said once Blake was out of earshot. **"Funny how a little bass in your tone can have people doing whatever you want. Quite **_**amusing **_**actually."**

" . . . Why are you here?" the Faunus asked nervously as he faced the only other person in the library.

The figure standing across from him was a tall statuesque woman with light Caucasian skin, platinum blond hair, and sharp blue eyes, her body possessing an hourglass figure that women all over the world would _kill _to possess; one he tried desperately not to ogle. Around her neck was a black leather choker, three thin garters holding up holding up the front of a purple bustier-dress with golden trim that revealed quite a bit of cleavage, a pale blue ruffled skirt with a lengthened tail hanging below it to near her knees. Over her arms she wore fingerless black gloves that went up past the bicep, a pair of black stiletto heels on her feet, and a black cloak with red lining possessing a high collar draped over her shoulders.

"**Why, Jack, I came **_**all **_**the way here tonight just to talk to my favorite student, and all you can ask is, 'Why are you here?' That hurts my **_**feelings**_**," **the woman tisked with her eyes closed as she strode towards him. **"And you know****what happens to people who hurt my **_**feelings**_**, right?" **she asked as her eyes snapped open, surrounded by a fiery white glow as a cold winter wind rolled off of her.

" . . . Right," Jack swallowed, knowing if he made the wrong move, this woman could snuff his life out as easily as one would a candle. And there wouldn't be a damned thing he could do about it.

"**Oh come now, Jack, you know I wouldn't **_**really **_**hurt you. After all, you're my precious little disciple,"** she said with a mirthful grin as she interlaced her fingers beneath her chin. The cute little tilt of her head would've had lesser men eating from the palm of her hand, but for Jack… it only filled him with a sense of dread.

"Not like I had much choice in the matter. You pretty much shoved it down my throat," the Faunus returned as he shook off the ice crystals forming on his hair. "And as I recall, if I didn't make the cut, I'd lose the use of my Aura. _Permanently_."

"**Oh don't act like you didn't enjoy it. The raw power coursing through your veins once you faced your demons... It was **_**intoxicating, **_**wasn't it?"**

"No… I won't deny that…" the Faunus admitted before shaking his head. "What are you doing here? Beacon is one of the _last _places I ever expected to see someone like you."

" **. . . Once you take a stand, you have to accept the consequences. Don't be afraid of getting down and dirty. You will hurt others and vice versa. Be the one that can move forward no matter how dirty you get. Only then can you call yourself my disciple,"** the woman recited, looking off into space before turning her gaze back to him. **"Do you remember when it was I said that?" **she asked, changing the subject

" . . . You said that during my time under your… _care_. When I began to doubt myself, and why it was I was doing what I was doing," the Faunus answered as he thought back. Even though it was so long ago, with but a thought he could recall everything in perfect detail. The sea breeze in his hair… the sandy white beaches at his feet… the ivory tower looming far above his head… "You still haven't answered my question," he said as he shook his head. "Why did you show up here, and now? My teammate almost saw you."

"**Hmm? Oh yes, the little cat-girl. Well, even if she **_**did **_**see me, it wasn't like I couldn't… **_**rectify **_**that," **she said cryptically as she held up her fingers, arcane energies flowing around them.

"Please don't kill my teammate's brain cells. Any less and that half-assed disguise of hers might fall apart at the seams," Jack half-pleaded as more of the lamps went out, until it was only the two of them within a halo of light amidst the darkness. "How long have you been here?"

"**Oh… Not **_**too **_**long. I showed up a few minutes ago actually," **she said as she walked to the nearest shelf. **"Besides, why **_**wouldn't **_**I come here? Some of these are **_**my**_** books after all,"** she said trailing a finger along the veneer, before looking over her shoulder back to him. **"I just **_**knew **_**you couldn't resist the temptation of the forbidden arts. It was only a matter of **_**time **_**until you made your way to this place... Or any **_**other **_**library of forbidden tomes like it, to be honest," **she said dismissively with a shrug of her shoulders. **"Mistral's is the best, Vacuo's is **_**okay**_**, and Atlas' forbidden books are all stashed who-**_**knows**_**-where."**

"Like I said to you when you purposed the Evil Paradox to me all those years ago before I left… In the face of an evil that cannot be defeated by just means, I choose to commit evil to destroy the _greater _evil," the Faunus replied as wisps of darkness momentarily rose from his clenched hands. "Anyhow… Regardless of how every cellin my _body_, _and _the depths of my soul, are screaming at me to pick a direction and start running… it actually _is _kind of good to see you again. Kind of," he reiterated. "Though now I'm wondering why exactly you're here. Right _now_. Why leave your castle at the end of the world to come to a den of goody-goodies like Beacon?"

"**Oh…"** the woman hummed. **"I just figured it'd been so long since we'd **_**seen **_**one another, that the two of us had a… heart-to-heart," **she cooed as she began to close the gap between them, the swing of her hips accentuating her womanly curves.

"Somehow… I don't like the sound of that," Jack shuddered as he shifted his feet. His claws popping out on instinct, the gap between them closing, before he could prime his Vectors, put some distance between himself and the woman walking towards him… he sighed, in resignation, raising his arms in surrender. "Do your worst," he breathed out a sigh.

"**Come now, don't be like that," **she said soothingly as her hand, wreathed in darkness, descended upon him, clawed digits wrapping around his head and easily lifting him from the ground.** "The night's still young~" **then woman cooed as she licked her lips, her eyes changing to gold and her sclera an abyssal black before dark lightning exploded across the Faunus' vision, the remaining light in the ancient library snuffed out as a pain-filled yell briefly pierced the darkness.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Well **_**that **_**was fucking ominous.**

**But anyway, since we're moving into the territory of all-original content up until the month leading up to the Vytal Festival, necessary foreshadowing had to be put in place. I don't think anyone's yet to do a "RWBY Sports Festival" on this site, and if someone has, I don't care, I'm prepping this gravy train for launch anyway. Technically though it's going to be a Sports _Day _(Sports _Festivals _last an entire week), but you get where I'm coming from.  
**

**On note of Team Dirge's new 4****th**** member, originally I was going to have it be another butt-of-the-joke Team like CRDL normally is, but thanks to some VERY good points made by my co-author, we've decided to settle on a dynamic change and mix things up for a bit. Amazing how far I was able to drag some nameless extras from the initial episodes, huh?**

**Anyhow, as for the "talks" between Jack and Glynda as they made their VERY awkward elevator ride up to Ozpin's office (seriously, how high does that thing fucking go?), Glynda's talk with Ozpin, and then her talk with Jack on the way back down to the ground floor, take it with a grain of salt if you have to, but this is a little something called world-building. Unlike Naruto or One Piece where every little facet is spread out in loving detail like some kind of ornate sushi platter laid out atop a naked woman (yes, that is a thing), even with the advent of Season 3, there is still very little we truly KNOW about the world of Remnant, and maybe that's how Monty Oum wanted it, or maybe not. Point is, there's an entire **_**world **_**of Remnant, and while I'm sure they could make an awesome looking entire **_**season **_**of "The World of Remnant" videos to cover every little detail, they did not, so I chose to take this opportunity to point out the occupational dynamics of the Hunters industry.**

**Anyhow, again, I hope you like all the foreshadowing I've done as we prepare to roll out into a whole new frontier! Fav, Follow, and Review if you want to make any kind of impact on this story.**

**P.S.  
Jack's cross-analysis of the exact **_**nature **_**of Pyrrha's infatuation with Jaune comes courtesy of ****Psykotic101****, one such Reviewer who has raised some very good points about WHY Pyrrha fell for Jaune, and how he chose to interpret it. Credit where credit's due, since their thoughts made it into the final cut.**


	29. Words Like Milk and Honey

That time… I remember it to be about three to four years ago, yet it strangely felt like yesterday.

My friend, guardian, and mentor, Adam, had been called upon to conduct a raid on what was believed to be a slaver encampment out in the Atlesian wilderness. At the time I'd just joined the new militant movement of the White Fang, and as such I wore the same white outfit as the rest of the "Grunts". I was more or less Adam's "apprentice", which meant I was learning directly from him and on the fast-track to becoming Lieutenant, hence why I was following him at the time. Others offered their services as well, but Adam said that bloated numbers would merely slow us down.

"So who is this person? Jack the Ripper?" I asked. The mission briefing from command didn't give us much, only that we were supposed to rendezvous with another member who had been actively tracking this cell for around a week when nomadic villages had stopped checking in one after the other.

"He's a fighter. A survivor," Adam replied curtly. "And above all else, he's one of the last vestiges of a warrior people that's been systematically hunted down to near-extinction since the last war."

"A war veteran, then?" I asked, imagining a mountain of a man in a White Fang mask.

"No. Not even close."

"But then how is he "_the last vestige of a warrior people_" from the last war?" I asked making air quotes.

"He's a Honey Badger Faunus, and other children like him that were born after he war, have been slaughtered indiscriminately for years because Humans don't want our kind to have the same trump card that won us the last war, in the event that another breaks out," he said bitterly.

"The Honey Badger Faunus were like _shock troopers _right? Fighting massive opposition that no-one else could in asymmetrical warfare? First on the battlefield, last to leave?" I asked. I still couldn't completely wrap my head around it at the time, but in the years since that day I learned some people _were _willing to kill infants merely because of who their parents were, or what _they _were.

"That's right," Adam replied. "Jack the Ripper however is special, because he was given one other name."

"Like what?"

"The One that Lived."

"And what did he live through?"

"Four years in the worst hell imaginable. The Killing Bites, and every rich dreg who made money off of it, threw everything they had at him, screaming out for blood, and he denied them," Adam said gripping his sword. "He wasn't even ten years old when the slavers first took him, murdering his mother on the way out. That he survived in complete solitude for four years before the new movement's forefathers were able to rescue him and so many others, is part of why he's called The One that Lived."

"The Killing Bites? But I thought that was just a _myth_," I gawped in shock. Widely regarded as a myth, the Killing Bites were known as an underground gladiatorial fighting ring where the rich and wealthy from all other would bring their slaves and otherwise indentured servants, before forcing them to fight to the death for the entertainment of the privileged masses.

"No. The Killing Bites were real. So very… very real…" Adam snarled as he shook his head. "I wasn't that much older than he was, and I remember seeing him for the first time, covered in blood, barely lucid… He'd spent so long having his fellow Faunus trying to kill him under the threat of death, that the moment we tried to help him, he lashed out at us, thinking the Killing Bites had initiated one of its _Sudden Death _rounds where they try to kill someone off to break an "unfair" winning streak."

"That's _horrible_."

"Words don't even _describe _the horror of what I witnessed that day."

"But wait, I thought slavery was banned _years _ago."

"Just because something's illegal, doesn't mean people won't do it anyway. There are always those willing to circumvent the law in pursuit of profit, and those willing to _aid _in that circumvention. Those willing to look away because an honest job isn't "enough" for them."

" . . . Fair point," I returned. Just because you didn't see slave auctions out on the docks anymore, didn't mean slavery didn't exist anymore. Whenever a rich family got busted for having Faunus slaves behind everyone's backs, it was a huge scandal that caused major societal upheaval, though I'd guessed the rich-and-privileged had gotten smart about it, because there weren't any slave-related busts for many years.

_***BANG***_

"It looks like the fighting's already started. We have to move," Adam said curtly as he ran up the side of a half-fallen tree. I was quick to follow after him, my cat-like sense of balance perfect for traversing the tree branches that formed a veritable open-aired freeway over the forest floor. No longer having to contend with the uneven terrain, our progress was swift, and as we gained momentum, we soon took to leaping from branch to branch instead of running along them, our bodies sailing through the air like the shinobi and kunoichi of old.

The sound of the fighting grew steadily stronger, and I could see a clearing in the distance, the outline of tan-colored tents standing out against the lush greens of spring. By the time we reached the edge of the treeline, it had been obvious that the fighting had already escalated quite rapidly. Half the tents were caved in, the beaten and bloody bodies of men wearing white robes with hoods over their faces thrown atop them. I almost threw up when I saw that some of them had had their limbs carved off, and their entrails were spilling out of their stomachs. Some of them were chopped in half while others were only halved part-way.

But what sickened me most was what I saw at the _center _of the camp.

In the middle of the campground was a large cast-iron cage, and within it, countless women and children, all of them Faunus. Some of them looked half-starved, others were bruised and beaten, others weren't even moving, and all of them were dressed in rags. Mothers held their crying children in their arm, and sisters held their sibling close, some of whom were completely still.

I wondered where the men were in all this, until I looked _around _the cage. Chained up to large posts sticking out of the ground by their wrists were male Faunus of all types and ages, and I lost my lunch entirely when I saw that their backs had been whipped bloody raw, bloody gashes spread across their backs and spilling out onto the ground. Some of them oozed with puss, as though they'd been left to fester for days without treatment. Others… I realized with horror, were already dead and left where they were, flies buzzing around them.

"Where… did they all come from?" I gurgled as I wiped my mouth on my sleeve.

"Most likely from the nomadic tribes that tried settling out beyond the Kingdoms, away from the rampant discrimination," Adam answered as he drummed his fingers on his sword, trying to find where the fighting was nor oriented. "When our contacts stopped checking in, we investigated and found from a survivor that their villages had been attacked by slavers looking to make a quick buck where no-one could see them?"

"But couldn't they just move to another Kingdom?" I asked. "One where they could settle down somewhere friendlier?"

"Faunus are expected to pay obscene emigration fees in order to leave Atlas, most which are more than what a Faunus can make in a year. If you're a Faunus in this country, you either work yourself to the bone for the Schnees for pennies to the dollar, or you try your luck out in the Frontier," Adam spat as he leapt from the tree and to the ground. "They don't give us any other option."

"That's… that's _horrible_…" I said as I followed him toward the camp.

"And that's what we're fighting to change. Because if we _don't_, everything will just stay the same, and tragedies like this will continue repeating themselves," Adam growled. A screaming body sent flying through the air towards us, Adam squared his stance and put his hand on his blade. I closed my eyes, the sound of flesh and bone giving way to a single lightning-quick strike hitting my ears. I followed the sound of Adam's footsteps, ignoring the squishy dirt under my feet as we made our way toward the center of the camp.

"Hey," Adam said as he approached the cage, the women inside of it flinching back in terror, clutching their crying children to their chests. "Don't worry. We're here to rescue you. Blake," he said turning to me and tossing a lock picking kit. "See if you can do something about this cage. I'm going to help our friend," he said running off to where the fighting was loudest.

"Right!" I said rushing over to the lock on the cage door. "Don't worry," I said soothingly as I began to work on the tumblers. "We'll have you home soon."

"_What _home…?" one woman with wolf ears spat. "Those bastards… They burned our homes to the ground, and what's the military doing? Running drills with their thumbs up their asses and getting three squares a day for doing nothing."

"I swear… if I get out of this, I'm going to kill every last slaver I see," a woman with tiger ears and a tail growled with barred fangs. "Every last _Human _too."

"There's no need to go that far…" I tried to reassure them. "Can't you just kill only the _bad_ Humans?"

" . . . Look behind you, tell me what you see," the tiger-eared woman ordered. I did, and almost retched at the strung-up corpse only a couple meters away. "You see that? That was my husband. Those assholes… they _raped _me, and they made him watch!" she growled as she clutched at her ragged shirt, my eyes widening in horror. "I will never… _ever _forgive them!"

" . . . "

I didn't really have anything to say against that. I'd heard _stories _of how the Circle of Man would sometimes rape Faunus during their crusades, but I thought that was just a myth. Propaganda to pursue the cause. But now…

"And you'd better watch your back," the tiger-eared woman spat. "If the Circle ever digs its claws into you, they'll fuck every hole you have, and laugh it off as they toss you away like garbage."

"Please… stop…" I pleaded. I didn't want to hear any more. The more I heard, the harder it was for me to believe that equal rights really were possible.

"No! I _won't _stop! You need to face facts and grow up!" the woman spat at me. "As soon as I get out of here, I'm joining up with the White Fang, and I'm going to kill every last Human man I can find."

"I'm almost there… almost there…" I said as picked at the last tumbler. However, before I could turn the lock, a shadow loomed over me. Whirling around, I saw a one-armed hooded man with a bleeding stump for a left arm standing over me, axe in hand.

"You damn… dirty animals… You've ruined _everything_!" the man growled as he swung his axe down at me. I reached for my sword, but his axe bit into my side and sent me flying, my Aura barely protecting me from the blow. "Why can't you just… do what you're _told_?!"

"Kill him! Kill that piece of shit and let us out of here!" the women, and even the _children_, raged at me as I deflected axe strikes as bet I could.

"Stop! I don't want to hurt you!" I shouted at him, pleading for him to stop.

"Well _that's _funny, because I _definitely _want to hurt you. Among _other _things," the man sneered as he eyed my body. Those hungry, almost _feral _eyes ravishing my body through the holes in his hood-mask, made me falter, and he suddenly swatted my sword from my hands. A straight-kick to my sternum knocked me off my feet, sending me into a tent which collapsed under my weight.

"Aagh!" I cried as his blood-stained boot clamped down on my chest, pinning me to the ground.

"Heh… heh… heh…" the man chuckled darkly as he put all his weight on my chest, pushing me to the ground. "Alive or dead, the young ones are always nice and _tight_!" he said with a sickening glee as he raised his axe on high, the manic look on his face that of a man about to commit murder without a moment's hesitation. The axe coming down, I closed my eyes, hoping it would end quickly, and… that Adam could save… what was left of me from this vile man.

However, the loud _***SCREEEEECH* **_of metal against metal forced my eyes open.

Blinking the light from my eyes, the first thing I saw, was that of the White Fang's blood-red insignia over me, a five-pronged mask like a skeletal hand wrapped around the head of the man the symbol was draped upon. Looking towards the trajectory of the axe, I saw a jet black knife holding the much-larger blade back. The knife had a blade maybe six inches or so in length, while etched across the flat were countless names in ancient script. Despite the massive size difference between the axe and the knife, the knife held firm, while the axe trembled.

"**You… are the worst kind of trash there is…" **the Fang above me growled in a dark, commanding voice as he raised the knife up.

"Sh… Shut up…" the man raged, practically frothing at the mouth. "The only trash I see here… is _you_… and _aaaaall _the other animals in that cage."

"_**Blake…"**_

The knife-wielding Fang didn't say anything to that. He instead drew his right arm back, clawed digits flexing and cracking before he threw his right hand forward in an explosive burst of motion, a loud _***SQUELCH* **_ringing through the air as his knife-handed strike buried itself up to the wrist in the man's chest.

"_**Blaaake…"**_

The man began to scream bloody murder as a bright-red stain dominated the chest of his robe. The hand in his chest beginning to turn back and forth, bones creaked and flesh sloshed as blood ran down he Fang's arm, the man's screaming smothered by the cheers of the women caged behind him.

"_**Hey **_**Blaaaaake**_**…"**_

The hooded man's screams reached an unprecedented volume as the Fang deflected the axe completely, the knife digging into his shoulder and severing muscle while the other began to pull out. Blood and viscera began to spray down onto my clothes, mask, and face, as a still-beating heart was slowly pulled from its home.

"_**Wake up, Blake!" **_that same incessant voice from before shouted in my ear just as the Fang began to put the squeeze on the man's wicked heart.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Huh, wha?" the black-haired beauty looked up, jarred from memory lane moments before Jack the Ripper crushed the man's heart into a bloody pulp.

"Blake, you've been staring at that same page for the last… twenty minutes," Yang said looking at the holographic digital clock hanging over the door to their room. "What's up?"

"Oh, um, just… thinking," the girl returned, closing her book with a sigh. She knew all about the ugliness of the world, but there just _had _to be a better way of bringing about change that didn't involve needlessly killing everyone who did evil before they could be rightly punished by the penal system.

"Oh? What about?"

"Someone… I used to know," she sighed as she closed her eyes. She'd held back in that fight, almost lost her life to someone who'd never have spared hers. And worse off, if Jack the Rippper… If _Jack _hadn't been there, she'd have suffered a fate worse than death.

"Oh? Like who?" the blond asked.

" . . . No one. It isn't important anymore," she sighed. _'To think… that Jack the Ripper was standing next to me the whole time… and I never even noticed.'_

It was the following morning for Blake Belladonna after that shocking revelation that came the night prior. The moment she heard _his _voice, she ran back to her room as fast as she could, cleaned up in record-time, and had her covers folded over her neck before the others could even ask what was wrong. Most in her position would be completely unable to sleep, and for a time she almost was as well. However, when she remembered _his _voice, commanding her to get some rest, a wave of fatigue washed over her and the girl found herself falling into blissful slumber. That one time back when she was nearing fourteen, wasn't the _only _time her life had been saved by Jack the Ripper.

"Has anyone seen Jack? The last time we saw him was last evening at dinner," Weiss said taking notice of how their room felt strangely empty. In accordance with school rules, as long as you attended classes on Friday, you were allowed to be gone for any time throughout the weekend up until the eve of the coming Sunday, so students leaving Beacon for the weekend wasn't necessarily uncommon. Those who lived in Vale would even stay with their families over the weekends for nice home-cooked meals.

"Jack? Oh, he said something about how a friend of his came into town and that he'd be back in the morning," Ruby said holding up her scroll.

**Ruby  
A friend of mine came into town. I'll be back in the morning.  
Jack**

"Well _that's _certainly concise," Weiss returned. The message was timestamped a couple hours after they'd all had dinner the previous night, more than enough time to catch an airship to Vale and show a friend around.

"Still…" Ruby hummed as she looked at the message. "Maybe this is _too _concise? Like maybe someone took Jack's Scroll and sent out the message _for _him?" _*GAAASP* _"What if Jack's been _kidnapped_?!"

"_Kidnapped_, in the middle of _Beacon_?" Weiss scoffed. "Be serious, Ruby. There are dozens if not _hundreds _of Huntsmen and Huntresses on academy grounds at any given time. Do you know how _ludicrous _you're being to even _suggest _such a thing?"

"Yeah, and besides, anyone strong enough to take _Jack _down would have to be a _real _fucking monster," Yang shrugged. "I mean, imagine how much noise that kind of fight would make if someone tried to… take him… against his will…" she trailed off. While Jack obviously didn't have pictures, her own imagination filled in the gaps, and just _imagining _a nine-year-old Faunus child being dragged away, kicking and screaming from his dying mother made her stomach churn.

"So in short, you're worrying over nothing. I'm sure Jack merely wanted to get that message out quickly without any posturing," Weiss said with crossed arms, not noticing Yang's hesitation to finish her sentence.

"Any idea when he'll be back?" Blake found herself asking. The black-haired beauty still wasn't sure if she could _face _him or not after learning what she had. One of the White Fang's _bloodiest _Lieutenants had been living under the same roof as her for around a month and she didn't even notice. There just wasn't any _way _she could not act shaken by the revelation. _'I mean, the guy saw through my disguise from day one. Does he also know I used to be part of the White Fang too? Come to think of it, how did _he _leave without consequence?' _she found herself asking.

When it came to why she didn't recognize him from her time with the Fangs, she was simply never around when "Jack the Ripper" removed his mask. There was _some _anonymity between members of the White Fang. Some simply felt more comfortable without that source of individuality.

"No clue," Ruby shrugged. "It could be hours from now, days, or even-"

_***Knock*Knock***_

"_I'm back. Are you all decent?" _a voice said from beyond the door.

"Jack!" Ruby said running up and opening the door for him. The Faunus' hair was a mess, there were bags under his eyes, and those very same eyes were kinda bloodshot. His skin was a mite pale, but he most certainly wasn't kidnapped or anything.

Not anymore at least.

"Ruby," the Faunus returned as he trudged into the room, shoulders slumped as he dragged his feet.

"Where'd you _go _last night?" the impressionable youth asked closing the door behind him.

"What did the _text _say?" Jack asked with a yawn.

"That a friend of yours came into town, and that you'd be back in the morning?" Ruby asked.

"Are you asking, or telling?"

"Telling?" she asked, before coughing into her fist and repeating. "_Telling_," in a more-serious tone.

So _cute _when she tried to sound like a grown-up.

"Is this one of your carrier pigeon friends?" Yang asked, the others raising their brows and wondering how _carrier pigeons _found their way into this conversation.

"More like… the kind of friend who drops in on me unannounced and it's… _really _hard to say no to her."

"So you're friends a _her_, huh?" Yang asked as she waggled her eyebrows. Given how nonplussed he was to the bodacious temple that was her body, she was compelled to ask, when Ruby wasn't around, if whether or not he had a plethora of "sexcapades" under his belt to regale her with.

"Yes, Yang. I have other female friends apart from you guys. Get over it," Jack groaned as he rubbed his eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked as Jack went over to the bed.

"I'm just… a little drained is all," Jack sighed as he rubbed his neck bellow Yang's infinity scarf. "I'll be up again in an hour or so. Gonna grab a quick power nap."

"Oh, well, have a good sleep, Ja-"

_***SNOOOOORE***_

" . . . Wow, he's out like a light," Yang said looking at him, the Faunus completely out of it the moment his head hit the pillow. She wanted to stroke his hair, but she wasn't sure what he'd think of that.

"What kind of friend drags you out in the middle of the night and doesn't let you back until morning?" Weiss asked skeptically.

"The same kind of people who buy other people _pets _as gifts," Blake answered. She didn't have any _experience _with that, it was just an observation.

" . . . Yeah, I can see that," Weiss said shrugging her shoulders.

"He seemed really _drained _for some reason," Ruby hummed. "Ooh! I know! We can bring him something from the cafeteria, like breakfast in bed."

"Hmmm… I guess that _would _be what he needs. Jack's certainly in no mood to be dragged around. _Again_," Weiss said looking to the sleeping Faunus who was snoring like gravel into a lawnmower. "Maybe a nice cup of hot coffee as a pick-me-up?"

"No, Jack can't _stand _the taste of coffee. He prefers hot-chocolate instead, cause he isn't a fan of bitter things," Blake interjected, everyone looking at her and wondering-

"How did you know that about him?" Yang asked.

"We… We _talk_!" Blake defended. "I might not be as close to him as Ruby is, but at the least we _talk _about stuff."

"Blaaaaake…" Yang said slowly. "Do you have the hots for Ruby's older brother?" she asked with her hands on her hips. The blond _really _liked seeing the smile on Ruby's face whenever she had any (surrogate) brother/sister moments with Jack. It was just too precious, and she did _not _want Blake messing that up for her.

"No! Of course not!" the brunette returned without missing a beat.

"Hmm… You didn't _stutter_, so for the time being I'll believe ya," Yang hummed.

_***SNOOOOOOOOORE***_

"_Staayway you… blood-shucker…" _Jack grumbled in his sleep as he turned over.

"Wow, he is _really _out of it," Weiss marveled. "Not even a minute and he's _already _in dream-land."

"How about we give him a little quiet-time," Ruby said as she drew the curtains and killed the lights, ushering the others out of the room.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, Team Juniper had gotten breakfast earlier that morning, and were spending a relaxing Sunday in their room. Ren was reading, Pyrrha was cleaning out her weapon, and the first two components of Team Juniper were…

_***SMACK* **_"OW!"

…fighting over the thermostat like an old married couple. Though it'd be more-accurate to say they were bickering like a pair of roommates fighting over the thermostat settings… which is exactly what they were doing come to think of it.

"C'mon, Nora, this is supposed to be part of my training," Jaune whined as he reached for the thermostat again, only for Nora to, once again, slap his hand away from it.

"And _I'm _telling _you _that if you turn off the AC at night, Nora gets the meat-sweats," the hammer-wielding girl referred to herself in the third person.

_***SMACK* **_"OW!"

"How long have those two been at this again?" Ren asked.

"Since yesterday," Pyrrha answered, not even looking up from her work anymore. It was remotely entertaining the first few times, but after the first hour it got really repetitive and she just wanted it to stop already. And that wasn't even counting the fact that by the time Jaune was able to do one-hundred push-ups, he was sweating buckets and ready to hack up a lung he was so tired.

It also didn't help that he wheezed out- "Oh god."_ –_and- "I am _really _out of shape." –the entire time. Which was more than an hour.

While it was true that Jack's opinion of the blond was harsh, she honestly _could _understand the source of his ire if Jaune couldn't even manage push-ups into the triple-digits.

_***Knock*Knock***_

"Hold on, I'll get it," Jaune said as he moved away from the thermostat, Nora whooping as she held her hammer above her head like a desert raider. The moment his hand turned the handle for the door and it opened, the door suddenly flew open with a deafening _***WHAM!***_, the blond knocked across the room and onto his ass as his back slammed against the back wall, a sandaled foot raised from when the door was kicked in.

"Morning bitch-face!" Jack greeted enthusiastically, chewing on one final strip of bacon.

"_Great, you too…" _Jaune groaned, and it wasn't from the door-slam he just got either.

"Put on your hiking boots and get the bug-spray. We're going on a _field trip_!" the Faunus continued on without missing a beat.

"Ooh! Are you going to a _minefield_?" Nora asked excitedly.

"Not this time, Nora. Not _this _time."

"Aaaaw…" the girl pouted.

"Wait, _what're _we talking about?" Jaune asked as he got up.

"Like I said before, you and I are going to go on a little field trip as part of your training. You're also going to help me get some Ingredients from the Emerald Forest, so it's a win-win for the both of us," Jack shrugged. "So c'mon already. Get your hiking boots on and throw on some clothes you don't mind getting dirty, we roll out in five," he said closing the door behind him.

"Well… I guess I know what _I'm _doing today," Jaune sighed as he went over to the closet and began digging for his hiking boots.

"Ren?"

"Yes, Pyrrha?"

"If it isn't too much trouble, and you don't have anything planned today, would you mind going with them? I'm worried for Jaune's safety."

"As you should be," the Mistrali teen sighed as he put away his book.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Right on the mark, the door to Team Juniper's room was knocked upon again. Jaune moved to answer it, bracing himself in case it got kicked, only instead of _that_, it was forcefully opened and struck him right in the face. Were it not for the blond's Aura, it would've broken his nose. Nora also took the time to mention that the doors were made of _really _strong stuff if there wasn't any sort of damage on the outside.

Jack was dressed in his Gourmet Hunter attire, which focused more on durability than flexibility, while a large brown backpack was synched across his chest. Jaune decided to go with the most-outdoor-sy clothes he had, which consisted of brown hiking boots, faded blue jeans, a gray long-sleeved shirt, and a black zip-up sleeveless hoodie. Ren was noticeably the _most _casual he'd ever dressed, wearing black open-toed sandals that wrapped around his ankle, faded blue-jeans, and a dark green long-sleeved shirt.

After Jaune made sure his Crocea Mors was synched to his side just right, and Ren stashed his Stormflower up his sleeves, Jack tossed them a pair of tan heavy-duty backpacks and ordered them out the door.

"So uh… What exactly are we going to be foraging for?" Jaune asked as he and Ren followed Jack to Beacon Cliff. Had he actually been _ready _to be slingshot hundreds of feet into the air, instead of being flung haplessly like a rag doll, he might've been able to _reminisce _about the whole thing with fond memories.

Instead, all he could associate with that memory was how he'd nearly died were it not for Pyrrha. In fact, after Jack got through ripping him a new asshole, for about a week he'd had recurring nightmares about no-one coming to his rescue on that day, and him turning into a greasy red stain on the forest floor over and over and _over _again like one of those internet videos where people hurt themselves on endless loop.

Only… you know… there was the _dying_, and then dreaming about carrion birds picking at his bones, before a very horny wolf fornicated with the remains of his skull through the left and/or right eye socket.

'_Gonna need some _therapy _for that one,' _Jaune thought to himself coming back to the present.

"Well, on top of whatever catches our fancy, we'll be hunting for honeycombs."

"Oh, well that doesn't seem so-"

"From some _really big_ Broadsword Bees."

" . . . What?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah. Them and Rapier Wasps compete all the time for territory, and it just so happens that last year, the Rapier Wasps got pushed out of the forest onto Beacon grounds, and so the Broadsword Bees had free reign of every flower and other nectar-repository for miles and miles. And today, we're going to get some of that sweet, sweet nectar," Jack finished explaining as he licked his lips.

"Okay… But why are they called _Broadsword _Bees?"

"Instead of needles, the stinger on a Broadsword Bee's abdomen is shaped like a broadsword," Ren answered matter-of-factly.

"So suffice it to say, getting stung by those bad boys will hurt like a-"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Neo!" Roman Torchwick shouted at his criminal cohort as he held up an empty tub of ice cream. "Do you see something wrong with this picture?"

" . . . ?"

"Don't give me that look! I know you ate the last of my gourmet ice cream! Fess up!"

" . . . !"

"Of course you did it! You're the only one who had access to my stock! _And _you have ice cream on your blouse!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"-bitch," Jack explained.

"Okay, I get it. Stay away from the stingers," Jaune groaned as he held his head, having an episodic flashback to the time Cardin had him get a shoebox full of Rapier Wasps. While _he _wasn't allergic to bees, he'd seen what happened to people who were, and _did_ get stung, and he did _not _want to look even the slightest bit like that. "But how exactly is this _training_? I thought you were going to teach me how to _fight_, not dig up _turnips_," he said blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

"What good is fighting if you don't have something to fight _for_? Why do you think I'm teaching you to gather food?"

" . . . Huh?" Jaune asked not getting his meaning.

"I think what he means to say is, a man capable of gathering food effectively makes for a better caregiver, which in turn will make a man more-desirable toward a prospective female," Ren summarized. "That in turn, will give said man something to come back home _to_, i.e. the promise of a family waiting for them."

"I'm amazed you interpreted all that from only a dozen words," Jack hummed. "But yeah, your team's resident ninja hit the nail on the head. Guys that can _literally _bring home the bacon almost _always _get the girls over the bum that only knows how to bust in heads."

"Like Cardin?"

"If that kinda thing floats your boat," Jack shrugged.

"Wait, you said bacon, so does that mean we're going to be hunting _pigs_?" Jaune asked hopefully. Like any other hot-blooded male, he too enjoyed the wonder that was a crisp piece of bacon.

Bacon made _everything _better.

"If we're _lucky_. Just remember, pigs are domesticated. _Boars _are what we're going to find out in the wild," Jack said as the launchpads came into view. "Take it in Jaune. The Kingdom of Vale officially ends… _right here_," he said pointing at where the ground took a sharp incline down. "That means from here on out, everything's free game."

"Um…"

"I think what he means to say is-"

"No-no, let me try to translate," Jaune hummed as he crossed his arms. "Um… You say the Kingdom of Vale ends right _there_, and everything's "free game", so does that mean, that Vale's laws no longer _apply _out here, and we can basically do whatever we want?"

"Good. You're rubbing more than two brain cells together," Jack said condescendingly ruffling Jaune's hair like a kid on the short-bus. "However, what you figured out just now, bandits and highwaymen have known for _generations_. That means whenever you're out here, you have to be ready for those that'll give you a hard time over your belongings."

"Wait, are we really going to be _attacked _out here?" Jaune asked worriedly as he clutched his sword.

"Getting attacked is _always _a possibility, _anywhere_. As long as you don't wuss out of making your Yellow Death turn Red, you'll be better than your typical greenhorn," Jack said with a shrug. "Now, wait right there, I need to make a quick phone call," Jack said pointing to the nearest catapult.

"Oh, okay," Jack shrugged as he walked over. "Man, this view is _breathtaking_," he marveled as Jack talked into his Scroll.

"Indeed," Ren hummed, happy he came if only to make sure Jack didn't _intentionally _put Jaune in a position where he may potentially be killed.

"Uh huh… Yeah, that's right. Number five," Jack said into the mic. "Yeah, the payload's in place, you may fire when ready."

"Wait, paylOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAD!" Jaune shrieked as the platform beneath him suddenly bucked, sending him flying through the air.

"REMEMBER, JAUNE! FOLIAGE IS YOUR FRIEEEEEND!" Jack shouted at the growing-progressively-smaller dot sailing off into the distance.

"Was that _really _necessary?" Ren asked as he watched his quote-unquote "leader" disappear into the tree line a few seconds later.

"Gotta get my jollies _somehow_," Jack chuckled. "Besides, if blondie wants to stand at the same starting line as the _rest _of us, he'll have to be able to withstand _that _much," he said with a shrug as he walked to the right past the catapults. "And by that, I mean on his own. He has Aura _this _time around, so he should be fine. Probably. Maybe."

"I take it this arrangement between you two stems from what happened between him and Cardin," Ren said as he followed behind.

"Yeah, but in this case I have to express client confidentiality. If you want the low-down, you'll have to ask the blond fop yourself," he said pushing some bushes aside, revealing a set of stairs set into the cliff face.

"Huh. Didn't know about these stairs," Ren hummed as he followed behind. "I assume you had Jaune ride the catapult for shits and giggles."

"Ren, my man, you know me all too well."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I hate you."

"Aw, I hate you too," Jack said with a grin on his face.

"And strangely enough, this is _exactly _how I imagined this conversation starting," Ren said as he watched on. He and Jack were fresh as daisies, but Jaune's clothes had twigs sticking out of them, and there were leaves and sap-stains in his hair and on his face. Up in the canopy above the tree they found him under, there was a noticeable series of gaps that were oddly human-shaped in nature.

Suffice it to say, Jaune was _not _happy with how their trip started.

"If you wanna bitch out and leave, the stairs are right there."

"STAIRS!?"

"But if you leave, that's the end of our arrangement, and your ass is twisting in the wind all by its lonesome."

" . . . Just take us to the damn beehive," Jaune huffed.

"Glad you understand me so well," Jack said with a grin and a tilt of his head. Were it not for the cross-shaped scar dominating the left side of his face, that gesture would've looked a bit less menacing.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The three boys spent an hour or so hiking through the forest after exchanging banter. Based around Port's teachings, they kept their minds empty and free of negative thought, which would supposedly prevent themselves from being bright fluorescent pings on every Grimm's radar. There wasn't any _proof _that lack of negative emotion kept Grimm at bay, but it kept their minds at ease, which by all logic _should _keep the Grimm off their back.

Eventually, they came upon a large river, the water crystal clear and teeming with fish. There was a waterfall upstream, the babbling of the brook and the rustling of the leaves on the wind soothing to the ear, a few smooth rocks at knee-level making for many comfortable seats. Jack took a knee, cupping the water into his hands and drinking deeply from it.

"Mm. That's good water," Jaune commented as he followed the motion.

"Of course. Its spring water right from the source," Jack hummed. "Well, enough lazing about. Time to get me some _fish_," he said pulling a large net and a cooler out of his backpack.

"But how are you going to fish without a fishing rod?" the blond asked, since the monochrome-haired Faunus had yet to take one of _those _out.

"I'm going to use _this_," Jack said pulling out a cherry red cylinder with a green fuse sticking out the top, roughly six inches in length and one in diameter.

"Uh… What is that?" Jaune asked warily.

"Trinitrotoluene."

"Which means…?"

"TNT," Ren clarified.

"Dynamite! Why would you go fishing with _that_?" Jaune yelped. Aura or not, TNT would _hurt _if it went off in your face.

"Animal bodies have a similar density to water, so if you subject animals in-water to enough force via a shockwave, smaller animals like fish can instantly be killed as it reverberates through their bodies and fills their lungs with blood," Jack said flippantly as he waved the cylinder of high-explosive around like a toy.

"But why would you have _that _for fishing? Wouldn't Dust be better?" Jaune asked. Using anything _other _than Dust to power weapons was practically _unheard _of in this day and age, and usually only sold by specialty shops.

"One, that stuff is _really _expensive, and _two_, Dust messes with the flavor of Ingredients regardless of application. Why do you think only trained _professionals _can become Bishoku-ya, and not just any yahoo with a shotgun?" Jack asked. That of course was ironic because the _baseline _for Capture Levels were ten guys with shotguns.

"Huh… Guess I don't give my sister enough credit," Jaune hummed, thinking back to one of his more… _gluttonous _siblings as Jack threw a net into the water.

"Fire in the hole!" Jack shouted as he lit the stick and tossed it upstream beyond the crest of the waterfall. Covering the ears atop his head, there was a loud _***BOOM!* **_that scared away the birds, accompanied by a column of water and a spray of mist. Moments later, dozens of upturned fish with their bellies facing the sky floated downriver right into Jack's net, which he drew back in with gusto. "Good haul," Jack said with a smile as he pulled them up onto the shore. "Now, before we go any further… Jaune, did your old man ever teach you how to gut a fish?"

"Yeah, when I was a kid. Why do you ask?"

"Because we're going to work on that weak constitution of yours."

"_What _weak constitution?"

"Remember day zero where you screamed like a little girl? Someone who screams like such a little bitch could _never _commit murder."

"Why would I ever have to commit _murder_?!"

"I think he's merely stating that in the hypothetical scenario, you might have to get your hands dirty for the greater good, and right now you just don't have the stomach for it," Ren clarified.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack said with a shrug. "Now get gutting," he said tossing the blond a knife, which he fumbled over for a few seconds before catching it. He looked like he was going to protest, but he promised to do what Jack said, _when _he said it, and _how _he said it, so there really wasn't any room to do that.

"Ugh, I hate how they just _stare _at you," Jaune grumbled as he adjusted the fish in his hand so its belly was facing up. Inserting his knife into the anus near the tail, he drew the blade toward the head, splitting the fish to the base of the gills, before spreading the abdominal cavity open and rinsed it out with the water in the stream, tossing out the guts.

"Get over it! Fish don't have eyelids!" Jack snapped as he scraped out the guts with his clawed digit after splitting open its belly. "Fresh fish tastes the best. If you don't wanna pay out the ass for them at market, this is the only real way to do it," he said pulling a cooler out of his backpack, before tossing the salmon onto a bed of ice.

"Won't all of this fish weigh you down?" Jaune asked as he looked at the net filled with traumatized fish at the Faunus' feet.

"Jaune. I wear two-hundred extra pounds of weighted training gear almost every day. Of _course _I can handle a couple dozen fish."

"Tell me something I _don't _know," Jaune grumbled. He _really _hated being reminded of how much stronger than him Jack was, even if it wasn't his intention.

"I once killed a man. With _this _thumb," Jack said with a completely straight face as he held up his right thumb.

What's more, Jaune _believed _him.

"Trachea?" Ren asked.

"Nope. Left temple."

" . . . You really _scare _me," Jaune grumbled.

"As I should," Jack huffed as he went back to gutting fish with his bare hands.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright, that should be the last of the fish," he said locking his cooler a while later. The symbol for the IGO was slapped on top of it, so it must've been a better grade than what ordinary people took to tailgate parties. "Now, let's see what else we can scrounge up," he said slinging his bag on his back as he trudged across the river.

"Anything we should look for?" Jaune asked.

"Look for deviations from the green foliage. That usually means _fruit_," Jack answered as he looked around. "Like _there _for example," he said pointing to an apple tree in the distance.

"Oh. How do we know when they're ripe?" Jaune asked.

"Did you even _pay _attention in Professor Peach's class?" Jack groaned.

"You need to gently hold the bottom of the apple, lift it against the stem, and give it a gentle twist. If the apple comes off easily it's ripe and ready to be picked. If it requires a forceful tug, it's not quite ready yet," Ren interjected as he ran up the side of the tree, effortlessly climbing its branches before finding himself in the canopy. Testing a few apples, he found a few that came loose, before taking one for himself and tossing a pair to Jack and Jaune.

"Ooh, I love apples," Jaune said as he made to bite into it, only to hesitate. "Wait… How do I clean this?"

"You rub it on your shirt," Jack said "polishing" the fruit on the front of his jumpsuit before biting down into it with a light _***Crunch* **_"That's where that troupe came from."

"Oh… I see…" Jaune said as he bit into it, the exocarp crunching between his molars.

"Hey Jack, how many do you want?" Ren asked from up in the tree.

"Whatever you feel like harvesting. I gave you those backpacks for a reason, so if you want fresh fruit, just reach out and take it."

"Oh, well then, toss them down!" Jaune said holding out his bag, Ren plucking a couple apples and tossing them over his shoulder, each one bopping Jaune on the nose before they fell into his bag. He was about to complain to his teammate about beaning him with fruit, only for a low growling to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Looking over his shoulder, he yelped as a single Beowolf came into view. "It's a Beowolf!" he cried as he grabbed for his sheath, the collapsed shield unfurling and bouncing repeatedly out of his hands, the soulless monster drawing ever closer to what it perceived as the weakest piece of meat.

"Dammit Jaune, get your shit together!" Jack growled, rolling his eyes before running to intercept the beowolf, a flare of bloodlust and negative emotion re-directing its attention to him.

The Beowolf swiping widely, Jack jumped over the telegraphed attack and drew back his right arm. His left grabbing it by the shoulder, he spun around and planted his feet on its back, before he straightened his right index finger and jammed it through the back of the Grimm's skull at bullet-like speeds, the _***CRUNCH* **_of bone giving way ringing through the clearing as the Grimm suddenly went wide-eyed, before falling flat on its stomach. Twisting his finger before yanking it out, Jack shook the evaporating grey matter off his hand as he got up and walked away.

"Uh… Did you just _finger _that Grimm to death?" Jaune asked disbelievingly as he stared at Jack's hand. He remembered back to the end of the first week where he jammed his finger right into his then-to-be-former leader's chest, but watching something _die _from it was marginally more terrifying.

"It isn't called _fingering_, it's called the Shigan, or _Finger Gun_," Jack huffed as he wiped his finger on his pants. "The way _you _say it sounds stupid."

"And dirty," Ren commented as he tossed a couple more apples into his bag like there was nothing more-interesting going on.

"Okay… but _how _do you make your finger that strong?" Jaune asked as he got back in pace with his trainer. Sure, he'd been on the receiving end of eye-pokes before, but to get killed by being _poked _to death, sounded like something out of a kung-fu movie. Like… the one-finger punch of death. There was also the fact that he probably punched a hole into Domnic's lung and… It was obvious why he was wary of the Faunus' fingers. Especially since they had built-in claws like the comic book hero Cat-Man.

"I repeatedly jab my finger into a bucket of sand, and gradually move up to coarser material until I'm poking holes in gravel," Jack answered plainly.

"Okay… dumb question, but _how _does the Finger Gun technique work?"

"You poke someone with your finger really, really, _really_ hard. Not a difficult idea to grasp," Ren stated plainly, making poking motions with his finger for emphasis.

"Okay, I get it. Stupid question, stupid answer," Jaune huffed as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"There's no such thing as a stupid _question_, only the stupid _people _who ask them," Jack huffed.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Meanwhile back at Beacon, the six girls of Teams RWBBY and JNPR had all gathered in the cafeteria and were all eating lunch together. With the Sports Day less than a week away, everyone had begun to eat healthier, do a little light training, anything to stop themselves from getting lax in the break. The "rewards" were ALSO an incentive, though none of them would say it out loud.

Well, _some _of them would say it out loud that the "reward" was motivation. Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha at the very least had that kind of decorum.

"What kind of rewards do you think will be offered on Friday?" Yang asked as she ate.

"Maybe a really big gun?" Ruby hummed as she leafed through an issue of Weapons Magazine. "Something from the B.F.G. line?"

"Ooh! Maybe it'll be an above-ground pooled filled with _syrup_!" Nora whooped as she licked her lips.

See what I mean?

"You're _really _going to allow material goods to dictate your motivation?" Weiss asked.

"I think we just established that," Blake hummed between bites of tuna fish.

"I prefer to think that they're offering us _incentive _to do our best, rather than simply _rewarding _it," Pyrrha stated as she ate her salad.

"Fair point," Weiss shrugged.

"I wonder how the Boyband is doing right now," Nora hummed between bites of pancakes. If you're wondering _why _they were serving pancakes for lunch, let's just say that _somehow_, the orange-haired girl was able to garner support to lay siege against the cafeteria staff until they, and the management, decided to make breakfast an all-the-time establishment.

That wasn't to say the idea wasn't well-received by those not involved, but it was just so _unorthodox_.

"Um… The _Boyband_?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You know, Ren and Jack and Jaune," Nora answered.

"Wait, why are you calling them _that _then?" Yang asked. She had a boyband poster above her bed and the three of them did _not _give off the same vibe.

"Because when the three of them are together, they're like a _boyband_, duh," Nora deadpanned with a tilt of her head. "Ren's the quiet one, Jack's the strong one, and Jaune's the goofy one whose scrawny white butt needs saving from ravenous monsters."

"Don't you mean _fangirls_?" Yang asked coyly.

"Yes. Monsters," Nora repeated as though she didn't hear the last thing.

"Well I think it's _wonderful _that our male friends are close-enough that they can hang out and do guy-stuff together," Pyrrha said with a smile on her face, whereas Yang snickered into her hand at the mention of "guy-stuff".

"Well, being surrounded by so many girls _can _be a little suffocating," Weiss admitted. "There are some topics that guys just can't _talk_ about in mixed company."

"And this _does _allot us the opportunity to talk about things _we _can't talk about with guys present," Blake hummed.

"Yeah! And we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute _boys_," Yang said with an upward lilt of her tone.

"Are you… _mocking _me?" Weiss asked, finding those words _eerily _familiar.

"Well you _did _lead Jaune on by calling him 'tall, blond, and scraggly'," Yang said wagging her finger at the heiress. "Who knew you were into that kind of game."

"Hmph. Please, as if I'd ever be interested in _that _troglodyte," the heiress huffed with crossed arms.

"Come now, Weiss. Jaune isn't _that _bad…" Pyrrha found herself choking out. While Weiss was an unwitting rival for the blond's affections, and she was _glad _she didn't reciprocate his feelings, it still hurt to hear her leader being talked about that way.

"Obviously we aren't looking at the same sides of him," Weiss said with crossed arms. "Thus far I haven't seen _anything _impressive or redeemable about him. At the very least, _Jack _is more than capable of carrying his own weight around here. Even _more _than his own weight of those one-hundred kilos are legitimate," she added.

"Speaking of which…" Yang interjected. "You come up with a nickname for his junk yet?"

"Yang! Gross!" Ruby squawked while the other girls spit out their drinks.

"Is this _seriously _how we're going to talk about cute boys?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I call it _The Devil's Crotch_," the blond said cheekily.

"You mean like the hot sauce?" Nora asked as she pulled out said bottle. It was red, and on the label there was a near-naked depiction of the Devil with bright-red skin and fire covering his genitals.

" . . . Gonna have to change that then," the blond whispered to herself.

"You fiend! Can you _not _talk about something so… so _vulgar_?!" Weiss squawked with a red face.

"What? Guys can talk about hot girls' _attributes_, but girls aren't allowed to talk about guys' _hardware_?" the blond asked.

"Are we _really _having this conversation in the middle of the cafeteria right now?" Blake asked, noticing the other students slowly edging away from their little collective.

"Yes… Yes we _are_," Nora said with a totally straight face.

"I wonder if Alana is having these kinds of problems at Signal right now," Ruby groaned as she laid her head down on the table as Yang and Weiss continued to bicker about "gross" stuff.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Meanwhile back with what would henceforth be referred to as The Boyband, after Jack finger-stabbed another Beowolf to death, as it turned out, that Grimm had friends, and thus, Jack did what came naturally to him.

"Jaune. Kick their ass!"

"A-All _ten _of them!"

_***WHOOSH-SPLAT***_

"There. Now there's nine," Jack huffed tossing a few pebbles in his hand, the double-digit Beowolf having had a golf ball-sized hole blown through its face moments before via a Calorie-powered throw. "If you're going to be any kind of _hero_, you'll have to be able to handle _more _than a single moving target."

"O-Okay, I got it!" Jaune said drawing his sword and unfurling his shield. "Any advice?"

"Yeah. Try not to die."

"Tell me something I _don't _know," Jaune grumbled.

"I once starred in an adult picture about a freed slave-turned-shogun and his nadeshiko mistress."

" . . . Now you're just _screwing _with me."

"That's what _she _said, right?" Ren asked.

"Yeah pretty much."

" . . . I can't tell if you're lying anymore or not," Jaune groaned as he raised up his sword and ran at the Grimm. "AAAAAARGH!"

"So… Did you _really _star in an adult picture?" Ren asked with a raised eyebrow. This was depth to his character that he was _not _expecting to learn that day.

"To be fair, Mistral has a slightly-lower age bracket for what classifies as _adult _in the movie industry," Jack returned. The arts of course, in any form, were heavily encouraged because they "distracted" people from the looming threat of Grimm which, if they thought about actively, would brew negative emotions which in turn would attract the Grimm. Hence, a sense of "ignorance" was actually _necessary _for the security of a Kingdom.

Ignorance was bliss after all.

"Huh…" Ren hummed as he drummed his finger on his arms. "What was the name?"

"I think it was part of the Sengoku Rendezvous series," Jack thought looking up at the sky. "Don't remember the specific title, though. It's a long-standing series and I only co-starred in the one film."

"So… you'll have sex on camera for money?" Ren asked raising an eyebrow. In the mixed company of Nora and Pyrrya… well, maybe just Pyrrha, he'd never be able to talk so freely about stuff like this. He was a hot-blooded male too, you know. He thought _he _had it bad, but Jack had to room with _four _women. That Jack hadn't gone completely insane yet from estrogen-smotheration was a testament to the Faunus' mental fortitude.

Little did Ren know that Jack's sanity went over the deep end _ages _ago. He just happened to get bored of it and decided to be sane again.

"To be fair, I knew the lead role from before and I owed her a favor."

"Right. _Favor_."

"Don't roll your eyes at me, she loved every minute of it."

"How _many _minutes?"

"Okay, now you're getting a little _too _personal."

"My bad," Ren said turning his attention back to the fighting. Jaune was doing _slightly_ better, but… "He's getting his ass kicked."

"So he is," Jack hummed as Jaune slashed at one, only for another to slash at his back from behind. His larger-than-average auric reserves took the blow, but as he was now he was simply wasting energy. "Want me to do something?"

"I got this," Ren said as he flicked his wrist, a kunai on a black silk ribbon dropping to the ground before he flicked it into the air with his foot, twirling it around his body before sending it snaking through the air off his arm, the bladed weapon glinting momentarily in the sun's light before it stabbed a Grimm in the brain through the eye. The blur of black was so fast and instantaneous that the pack's attention remained completely fixated on Jaune.

" . . . Sweet," Jack said appreciatively with a nod.

"It's a kunai on a rope. Of _course _it's sweet," Ren said retracting the weapon back up his sleeve.

"Indeed it is, Pankeki Bishounen."

"Please don't call me that."

"Fine, fine. But we have _got _to make a nickname for you one of these days," Jack said opening his Scroll and activating the Aura Reading app. "We'll wait a couple more minutes and step in if need be," he said tossing a couple pebbles in his hand.

"Sure you will," Ren hummed as he palmed his hidden weapon once again.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Jack…" _*Pant* _"You are an evil…" _*Pant*_ "…_eeeevil _man," Jaune panted a few minutes later as he walked away from the evaporating corpses of under a dozen Grimm.

"Whatever bitch-face."

"_Dammit, not you too…"_

"So… That was fun," Ren hummed as he drew his kunai back up his sleeve. "What now?"

"Now… we go for the _hive_," Jack said with a manic look in his eye, a phantasmal four-eyed wall of fur, muscle, and horns licking large fangs momentarily appearing behind him.

"I'm going to _die_, aren't I?" Jaune asked his teammate.

"I dunno. _Are _you?" the Mistrali teen asked with a raised eyebrow.

" . . . No?"

"Youuu _hesitated _for a second. Why?"

" . . . Let's just go to the fucking hive," Jaune grumbled as he fell into place behind his "tor-trainer". What _else _could he call the guy?

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"_That's _the fucking hive?!" Jaune squawked as he looked through a pocket telescope.

"Beautiful ain't it?" Jack asked through his own like-hardware. The hive was built into the branches of a very large tree in the middle of a clearing, the hive itself as large as a small apartment.

"Those bees are the size of fucking _house cats_!" the blond squawked.

"They look bigger than they appear."

"One of them is _gnawing _on a house cat, _right now_!" he pointed to the base of the tree, where a large cat-sized bee was _literally _gnawing a cat between its mandibles.

"That's a kitten," Ren deadpanned.

"Okay, but _still_, that thing's fucking huge," he whimpered.

"You scrounged up a shoe box full of Rapier Wasps. What do _you _have to be scared of?"

"Those things were the size of my _finger_. These are the size of my fucking arm!"

"Yeah, well, consider this part of your training for dealing with small objects."

"This is because I almost chucked Red Sap at your head isn't it?"

"Not in the slightest. Now go out there and make a lot of noise so Ren and I can get us some honey," Jack ordered as he drew a large machete from his backpack.

"_Honey badger holds a grudge," _Jaune groaned as he began belly-crawling through the foliage towards the hive.

"Honey badger don't care~" Jack sung.

"You realize you just sent him off to his death, _right_?" Ren asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. If he can't even handle a few _bees_, he isn't fit to protect _anyone_," Jack said as he led Ren around in the opposite direction.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"_So the plan is, while Jaune make a colossal ass of himself, you and I are going to sneak around the back and run off with a chunk of the hive for ourselves?"_ Ren whispered as he and Jack got to position, the Mistrali teen screwing on a pair of suppressors onto his Stormflowers' barrels.

"_Pretty much, yeah. These things are supposed to be _super_-territorial, so while they're all focused on him, we can make off with some high-grade honey. Broadsword Bee Honey will go _great _with the Red Sap from the last semester," _Jack explained as he lightly scraped an edge back into his machete with his claw.

"_Where'd you even _get_ that thing?"_

"_Beacon has some _really _terrifying litter lying around. Remember the blunt pipe?"_

"_That answers _none _of my question."_

"_Shush, Jaune's about to make his move."_

"RAAAAAAAGH!" Jaune shouted as he burst into the clearing, grabbing the biggest rock he could carry before chucking it at the massive beehive, eliciting a loud **_*CRUNCH*_**. Moments later, an incessant buzzing began to fill the air as dozens of kitten-sized bees began pouring out of the hive. Their compound eyes glaring right at him, Jaune did the only thing he knew how to do.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"_**EYAAAAAAAGH!"**_

"Hm. It appears that some girl is in distress."

"Ozpin, stop drinking that cocoa and get back to work."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"WHY ON REMNANT DID I AGREE TO THIIIIIIS!?" Jaune squealed as he ran for his life, blindly swinging his sword behind him and hacking the giant insects in half by sheer luck, while managing to shield bash others.

"_Probably because you put so much value on instant gratification," _Jack huffed as he and Ren ascended the tree from behind.

"_It's weird how well you can articulate words with a machete in your teeth."_

"_You think so? I haven't noticed."_

"_So, how should we go about this?"_

"_I've already located a large bulbous protrusion that should be easy enough to carve away. While I do that, you shoot any bees that get close. Once I can yank our prize free, you and I will run like bats out of hell."_

"_What about Jaune?"_

"_Oh right, I forgot about him."_

"_**I DON'T WANNA DIIIIIE!"**_

"_Eh, I'm sure I'll think of something. Bingo," _he said sinking his claws into part of the hive, before whipping out his machete.

_***WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK***_

_***SHRRRRRRK***_

"_You're really going to town on that thing aren't you?"_

"_I have to. This stuff is a Capture Level 6 Ingredient at best. It'd be Level 8 or even 9 if Jaune weren't keeping them distracted."_

"_That being the case…" _Ren said as a bee buzzed around the side of the tree, the teen putting a silenced burst between its eyes and dropping it like a lead weight. _"These suppressors won't last forever, and neither will Jaune. You done over there yet?" _he asked as he popped bursts in several more.

"MAXIMUM EFFORT!" Jack shouted as he braced his legs against the tree before ripping the torso-sized chunk of beehive away with both hands, sending it flying into the air. Moments later, fortunately or not, the beehive chunk came down right in top of Jaune's head as he came around the side of the tree, drenching him in honey. "Ah. Luckyyy."

"We should probably make our exit now," Ren said worriedly as several large bees began to close in on them.

"You're probably right," the Faunus shrugged. "JAUNE! Quit playing with those bees and follow me! We're bugging out!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_*SNRK*_

"What're _you _smiling at?" Blake asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just feel like someone made a really funny pun."

"How can you tell?"

"There's nothing more-powerful than a woman's intuition."

"What about her desire to protect her offspring?"

"That too."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_*PANT*PANT*PANT*PANT*PANT* _"Why are these things still chasing us?!" Jaune cried after he caught his breath, the three of them running for their lives through the Emerald Forest.

"You're drenched in honey and _I _have over a dozen of their offspring!" Jack said holding up the hive chunk, a dozen or so wiggly white larvae squirming around in the honey comb structure.

"Why did you drench me in honey!?"

"I didn't. It was a happy coincidence!"

"Oh you are en_joying _this aren't you?!"

"Jaune Arc: Killed by Bees, Died a Virgin. How does that sound for your head-marker?"

"It _SUCKS_!"

"Then run like your life depends on it, because it kinda does!" Ren shouted as he fired blindly behind him.

"Let's drop the packs! We can make a faster getaway!" Jaune cried, straining under the weight holding him down.

"You waste that food and you'll _need _a headstone!" Jack roared angrily. Given his backpack was stocked with fish, apples, mushrooms, berries, and other things they collected on the hike, that was saying something.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"The sun's staring to set. Where is he? I don't care if it'll still be our break on Monday, I will _not _condone laziness with the next semester drawing ever-closer," Weiss said pacing in the courtyard.

"It's possible their field trip simply took longer than anticipated," Pyrrha reasoned.

"Isn't there any way to track them?" Ruby asked.

"You could probably use your Leader App," Blake postulated.

"The what-now?" Yang asked.

"The thing that lets you track the locations of your teammates' Scrolls," she answered.

"Oh. Well why didn't you say so," Ruby said as she took out her Scroll. "Let's see now. Loading… loading… loading… I got something!" she said pulling up a map of Beacon. "Okay, so if _we're _here…" she said pointing to a cluster of letters; a red **R**, a white **W**, a black **B**, and a yellow **Y **in little circles. "Then _that _must be Jack," she said pointing to the green **J** that had just entered Beacon grounds.

"It's closing in on us pretty fast," Blake said looking at how fast the **J** was moving across the screen.

"Really _really _fast," Yang hummed.

"Then they should probably be coming from _that _way," Weiss said pointing to the east. Moments later, Jack, Ren, and Jaune came tearing around the corner of a building, backpacks fit to burst on their backs, a large off-yellow object in Jack's hands, and dozens of kitten-sized bees with wide flat sword-like stingers chasing after them.

"Nora! Grenade launcher! _Now_!" Ren shouted.

"Got it, Renny!" Nora replied as she whipped out her Magnhild and brought it to bare at the three boys. Lobbing a 'nade, the projectile screamed through the air before smacking one of the Broadsword Bees between the eyes, a pink heart-shaped mushroom cloud consuming the bees. When the dust settled and The Boyband stopped running, the Broadsword Bees caught in the explosion had fallen to the ground, twitching occasionally.

"What on Remnant _are _those things?!" Weiss said as she beheld the massive-by-comparison bees.

"Broadsword Bees. Individually they're Below Capture Level 1, but in a group their Level increases exponentially," Jack explained as Nora walked over and pocked one with a stick.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha gasped. "There's an arrow in your butt!"

"WHAT!?" Jaune yelped as he turned around, a black shaft stuck in his left cheek.

"Actually, it's a stinger," Jack clarified.

"How did you not notice!?" Pyrrha gaped.

"I was running for my life!" Jaune cried.

"We need to get it out of there!" the red-head cried as she grabbed the arrow.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"_**EYAAAAAAAGH!"**_

"Hm. It appears that some young lady is in distress," Professor Port said stroking his moustache.

"Indeed! That sounds very-much like the case!" _***SIIIP***_

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Don't pull it out!" Jaune yelped.

"_Insert dirty sex joke here," _Yang snickered, low-fiving Jack a second later.

"Well we can't _leave _it in there. Your butt's swelling up faster than a fat kid at an all-you-can-eat buffet," Nora postulated.

"Why didn't I notice!?" Jaune yelped.

"Probably because Broadsword Bees have a light neurotoxin that numbs pain in the injection site," Ruby stated.

"We should probably get that looked at," Ren stated as he shot a Bee that was about to get up between the eyes.

"Probably," Jack shrugged. "What is that?" he said pointing to the side. Everyone's attention turning, Jack yanked the black shaft out of Jaune's ass in one swift motion, his hands going to his butt moments later as a blood-curdling shriek left his lips. Several seconds later and he passed out, falling flat on his face while everyone's hands were on their ears. "You should probably get an ice pack for that."

"For his ass or his face?" Nora asked.

"Either or. I don't see the difference."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

While Jaune was taken away to get that bee sting looked at, Jack went off to the chefs' district at Beacon and had the chunk of Broadsword Beehive rendered for its honey, the comb itself cut into slices. Once that was done, and the rest of the Ingredients had been stashed away, Team RWBBY broke for a modest supper.

Once everyone separated, Jack went off to Beacon Cliff once again for a little quiet-time now that he didn't have to babysit. Being sure to stay _well _away from the catapults on the off-chance they malfunctioned, he worked his way between he foliage on a well-trodden footpath to a small clearing overlooking the Emerald Forest a little ways away. It was a few meters wide, a weathered stone bench situated in the middle of it, creating a small haven from the noise of the Academy at its back to enjoy nature's splendor. The sun setting at his back, the sky slowly darkened until the stars began to poke through the darkness of the night sky.

"Hmmm… Crunchy, with a chewy center," Jack hummed as he chewed on slices of honeycomb.

Growing up on the Frontier, this sort of thing was his answer to the candy bars that kids in urban areas could pick up on the street corner whenever they wanted. Of course, the bees that _he _dealt with weren't nearly as deadly, and the honey wasn't quite as sweet, but sharing little gifts from nature like this with his mom were some of his most-cherished memories.

He'd _hoped _to be able to have moments like this with his baby sister once her teeth came in, but we all know how _that _turned out.

"Rest in peace, sis," Jack sighed as he broke apart the honeycomb between his molars. _'Crunchy with a chewy center indeed. Like I can almost _taste _the labor those deranged psycho-bees put into it,' _he hummed to himself. That wasn't to say he couldn't take them on his own, but killing too many of them and harvesting from the hive at the same time would've been difficult; that and it would've messed with the surrounding ecosystem. "I know you're there, Blake. You aren't the _first _person to try sneaking up on me from behind."

"Guess I can't get _anything _past you," Blake sighed as she stepped out of the trees. "You mind if I sit down?"

"Go ahead," Jack shrugged as he scooted over, the black-haired beauty brushing some dirt off the seat before sitting down next to him.

" . . . It's an amazing view out here," she hummed as she looked at the sky.

"You want some?" he asked holding out a slice of honeycomb to her.

"Sure. Why not?" Blake shrugged as she took the treat and bit into it. "Mmm. It's sweet."

"It _was _a labor of love after all," Jack hummed chewing on his own. "As long as you ignore the fact that it's essentially bee vom-"

"Stop. Just, stop," Blake cut him off before he could _say "_vomit". She _knew _that honey was belched out by bees after they sucked up pollen and nectar, she just didn't need to _hear _it.

"Stopping," Jack shrugged as he looked out at the night sky, fireflies beginning to dance around the woods at their back, the crickets chirping.

" . . . Hey Jack?"

"Yeah, Blake?"

"Your mother… and I'm not trying to step on any toes or anything, but what was she like?"

"She was my _mom_, not much more that needs saying," Jack shrugged.

"I get that…" Blake hummed. "Just curious, what did she _look _like? Like, did you take after her, or your dad?"

"My face, skin, and hair I got from my dad, but my build I got from my mom," he answered. "If I had to make comparisons, my mom actually looked like an older version of _you_."

"Like _me_?" Blake asked, before remembering that his mother was a Jaguar Faunus, one of the "big cat" breeds. Certainly explained where the retractable claws came from.

"Like an older version of you, with an older Yang's build, and slightly darker skin," Jack clarified. "Of course, my mom was a _beast _on the battlefield, and Yang simply doesn't measure up to her."

"How doesn't Yang measure up?" Blake asked. They were talking about a girl who could juggle full-grown Ursa with her _fists_.

"Well, one time she caught a shipping container some asshole dropped on her, and then she chucked it right back at him," Jack shrugged. "Probably explains why she wasn't allowed back at that one port town," he hummed. "Anyway, my mom was _amazing_, and even though I only knew her for maybe half my current life, it's not like I've forgotten about her. She's still with me, right in here," he said patting his breast pocket.

"In your heart?"

"In the old photo I keep close to my heart, but if you want to get philosophical, then sure. She's there too."

"Of course," Blake chuckled. "You know, it's pretty nice out here," she said looking up at the sky.

"You ever find yourself a boyfriend as-into porn as you are, and you can take him here whenever you want."

"Ninjas of Love is _not _PORN!" Blake squawked.

"Keep telling yourself that," Jack shrugged as he stared up at a belt of stars in the night sky. Blake went back to chewing on her treat, taking in the atmosphere before she turned to him.

" . . . Hey Jack?"

"Yes?"

" . . . Thank you. For saving my life back there." He used his _Jack the Ripper_ voice on her, so obviously he recognized her, even if she didn't recognize _him _right away. No need to say _what _he saved her from.

"Past or present, we're comrades," Jack returned. "Watching your back won't be any problem."

"Yeah… No problem," Blake eventually replied with a soft smile. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to _ask_, but at the end of the day, all that really _needed _to be said, was a simple- "Thanks."

It didn't matter if he used to be with the Fangs or not. She used to be one too, and obviously, that part of their life was behind them and they were trying to use their power for something _good_. When all was said and done, that was all that really mattered. No need to wake sleeping dogs.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**JACK BRAXTON'S BOOTCAMP FROM HELL:**

Jaune, report to the Arena for an immediate training session or I will beat your ass.  
Jack

"**Well **_**that **_**was certainly to-the-point," Jaune thought as he made his way to the arena where he'd spent so many hours getting his ass kicked. Hopefully that would end soon.**

**"Jaune. I'd say I was glad you could make it, but honestly, I couldn't care one way or another," Jack shrugged as soon as they came into sight of one another.**

"**Jack… Why is Team Cardinal here?" Jaune asked nervously. "And why are they dressed like pirates?"**

"**Oh, I think there's been a bit of confusion here. These four aren't Team Cardinal. They're a traveling improv group. Here, let me give you a demonstration," Jack said drawing the four's attention. "Those four will play a group of drunken sailors, and **_**you'll **_**play the part of a baby seal. Aaand… Go," he announced, the oddly-dressed Team CRDL taking a few seconds to get the point before realization dawned on them. Before Jaune could mount any sizeable defense, they began to beat the crap out of him, be it with fists, feet, or an oddly-placed two-by-four.**

**Man, Beacon had some **_**terrifying **_**litter lying around. Blunt pipes, discarded swords, and now two-by-fours? What next? Steamrollers that explode when you punch them enough?**

"**Aaand… **_**Scene**_**," he announced a few seconds later, Team CRDL stepping away.**

**"Oh god... I can taste blood..." Jaune groaned as he held himself.**

**"Yeah, that happens after a good ass-kicking," Jack shrugged.**

"**How'd you even **_**get **_**them here anyway?" the blond groaned. "I thought you all **_**hated **_**each other."**

"**Well…"**

**10 MINUTES AGO**

_*Knock-Knock*_

"**I'm coming." **_*Step*Step*Step*_** "Who is-"**

_*Click-WHAM*_

"**You kicked our door in! What the fuck?!"**

"**Hey guys! You wanna make ten Lien?"**

**15 MINUTES LATER**

"**We came to a mutually beneficial agreement, and here we are," Jack said after pausing for several seconds. "Enough about the past, and let's focus on the present," he said shirking off any further questioning. "Remember, Jaune. If you can't mount a sizeable defense in an instant, you'll wind up getting the crap kicked out of you by a bunch of dudes in bowler hats."**

"**Huh… Well **_**that's **_**an oddly-specific metaphor," Jaune said looking up from the fetal position.**

"**Who said that was a **_**metaphor**_**? You really **_**will **_**get the crap beaten out of you by a bunch of dudes in bowler hats if you don't get your shit together," Jack said, causing Jaune to look up at his impromptu "sparring partners" slash "improv group". Instead of pirate hats or bandanas, they were now wearing bowler hats with cloth bands of their respective colors atop their heads. "Aaand… go."**

"**OHMYGAWD!" Jaune yelped as a two-by-four struck him in the face.**

"**Remember, protect your vital area!" Jack instructed as Jaune got the shit kicked out of him. "Not **_**that **_**vital area! Your **_**other **_**vital area!"**

"**They're beating **_**all **_**my vital areas!" Jaune yelped helplessly.**

"_**Pick **_**one!" Jack ordered. **

"**You're enjoying this aren't you?!" the blond yelped through a kick to the ribs.**

"**You know what I'm not hearing enough of?" Jack asked aloud. "Protecting your vital areas!"**

"**OW!"**

"**Try harder!"**

"**OW-HOW!"**

"**I love my job."**

"**I fucking knew-OW!"**

"**Less talking, more protecting-of-vital-areas!"**

**Beacon really **_**did **_**have terrifying litter lying around.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Figured after last-chapter with all the mentioning of "Jack the Ripper", I'd finally take a little time to shed some light on Jack and Blake's past relationship. The reason she didn't recognize Jack Braxton as "Jack the Ripper" is merely because his mask completely obscured his identity, and it's a big world out there so it wasn't like they crossed paths all-the-time. In case it hasn't been elaborated-upon clearly enough, this time around, the White Fang are much more overarching than in canon, and Adam Taurus does NOT lead the entire organization as he appeared to in the canon.**

**Broadsword Bees and Broadsword Bee Honey are original "Ingredients", a parallel to Rapier Wasps that Jaune collected earlier. A single Broadsword Bee might be considered [Below Capture Level 1], but you add a couple _dozen _to the mix and that number becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Given how the example of a [Capture Level 1] Ingredient in the anime was a Baron Shark, or whatever that thing in Komatsu's thought bubble was, I think it's safe to say that [Capture Level 1] Ingredients are _deadly _for normal people. Especially if [Capture Level 3] Ingredients need a fucking _TANK_ to take down, and anything higher than that leaves the range of the ability for "conventional weapons" to handle.  
**

**ALSO! Before I forget, a certain someone is going to be guest-starring in ****The Learning Game**** by **Psykotic101**, a RWBY/Smash Bros. crossover, so if you're a fan of RWBY and/or Smash Brothers, give it a read. If you want to find out who is guest-starring, you'll have to give it a read to find out who. Also, since **Psykotic101** is a relatively new author, I'd hope any of you readers decide to leave them a couple Reviews, to tell them what they did right and wrong. Constructive Criticism DOES help, as opposed to two-worded Reviews like "Good chapter" or "Update more", or even the odd life-threats directed at Authors who put a little more priority into their real lives instead of their hobbies.**

**Anyway, hope you decide to leave some Reviews for THIS story as well. Things are going to be all-original from here-on out. Bit of a slow-burn toward Volume 3, but if I skipped 3-4 months or so without any character development, that wouldn't be very fun for any of us now would it?**


	30. Ruby of Grief

Something the Freshman Dorms had but Team RWBBY and JNPR didn't have much cause to _use _was the communal kitchen. It didn't have _all _the bells and whistles, but it had everything necessary to make a good meal. It even came with a fridge, but the students were expected to stock it themselves, and they had to protect their own stuff. While the cafeteria was a much-simpler option to take when it came to food, so few freshman really _bothered _to make their own food when it came made _for _them a ten-minute walk away, and for free no less.

However, The Boyband's little trip into the Emerald Forest wasn't without borne fruit, both literally and metaphorically.

"Mmmm! These strawberries are so sweet!" Ruby squealed as she ate ripe strawberries drenched in sugar.

"As are these blueberries," Weiss replied as she daintily picked at a small bowl of them with a fork and a napkin down the front of her blouse.

"Great job on these blackberries," Blake said popping another into her mouth.

"And these cherries," Yang added as she tied a stem into a knot.

"Thank you so much for inviting us to this potluck!" Nora cheered as she anxiously pounded her fists on the table next to her plate, a knife and fork in her hands.

"Hey, this was a _team_ effort. It was a _joy _to invite you here," Jack said as he and Ren worked at the stove, each of them juggling a pair of frying pans at once as they made pancakes. "Girls, easy on the berries or there won't be any left for the pancakes."

" . . . Sorry," Ruby apologized, a finger-twitch away from drowning her strawberries in whipped cream.

"You guys _really _went to town with the foraging, didn't you?" Pyrrha asked as she sliced strawberries in preparation.

"Out in the Frontier, you can _literally _take whatever food isn't rooted to the ground. It's just that in most cases, it's too _dangerous _for the average person to do so," Ren said as he slid his spatula under the pancake before he sent it flying with a flick of the wrist, his orange-haired teammate whooping in joy as they landed expertly on her plate, where she then proceeded to drown it in syrup.

"That's why Gourmet Hunters are always in such high demand," Jack said placing pancakes onto plates and passing them to his teammates. "Anyone who's willing to brave the dangers of the Frontier is free to walk off with whatever they can carry on their own backs. The only time you need _license _to gather food is when you intend to load it on a truck or distribute it for resale outside the wholesale market."

"Huh… I guess we should go out with you guys more often," Yang hummed as she tried to make a constrictor knot with her cherry stems, only to fudge it once again._ 'Seriously, is tying constrictor knots with your tongue a Faunus thing or what?' _she wondered, unsure if it was tactful to even _think _along those lines.

"By the way, where'd you learn to cook?" Blake asked.

"My mom taught me," Jack said as he and Ren proceeded to scrape the pancake residue from their pans, before pulling out cuts of meat from the fridge. "Fresh ingredients taste the best, don't they?"

"They certainly do," Yang replied as she sampled some of the cherries.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's the occasion?" Pyrrha asked.

"No _real _occasion. I just figured I should do something nice for my team as thanks," he said looking over his shoulder at them as he and Ren proceeded to rub pineapple enzymes into the meat. "It couldn't have been easy changing your lifestyle to make the room co-ed, and I just really appreciate how you took me in when no-one else was willing to put up with me."

"Hey, what're friends for?" Ruby asked.

"I just really appreciate all you did for me, and I'm very grateful," Jack said with a smile. "Plus, it's like a wise man once said. The ones the future can be entrusted to have always been those who can sit around the same dining table."

"That's very deep. Who coined that phrase?" Pyrrha asked as she ate pancakes.

"I don't really remember. It's just something my mom always taught me," Jack shrugged as he and Ren finished rubbing herbs and spices into the cuts of meat.

_***SSSSSSS***_

"Hmm! That smells _great_!" Yang hummed as drool slid down the corner of her mouth. "What is it?"

"Saber Rabbit."

"You mean that bear-sized rabbit you and Nora brought down in the Forever Fall Forest?" Weiss asked with raised brows. That thing was _enormous_, she almost didn't believe what she was seeing when that massive thing came swinging in with its massive meat-hunk arms. Sure, she'd eaten exotic Ingredients before, but she thought most of the stories about them were just that. _Stories_. Something meant to hike up the value, for the ambiance.

"Yep. It's all fast-twitch muscle all-white-meat on an all-organic diet. And it'll go _great _with a nice Red Sap glaze," Jack said pulling aside a jar.

"Hey guys, can I help?" Jaune asked from his seat at the table.

"NO!" Jack and Ren rounded on him, causing him to recoil.

"So what all are we getting?" Ruby asked.

"Well, for _you _I prepared a nice Saber Rabbit chuck ground into burger so you aren't dragged too far out of your comfort zone," Jack answered as he shaped what appeared to be a patty. "Weiss will be receiving a piece of tenderloin served filet mignon, Blake will be getting a lean low-fat round, and for Yang I'm preparing some ribs in the oven in a Red Sap sauce."

"Jaune will be receiving a T-bone steak, Nora will be getting a set of ribs, Pyrrha will receive a round, and I myself will be partaking in some tenderloin," Ren approximated for his team.

"So this is less a breakfast and more a _brunch_?" Jaune asked as the smell of home-cooking filled his nostrils.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack shrugged.

"What about you?" Ruby asked.

"I'll be having a nice set of blood sausage courtesy of one of Beacon's culinary clubs," Jack replied as he licked his lips. "Ironically, even though half of them are girls, they still call their club the Sausage Fest."

"Okay, I think you're starting to push the blood fetish thing a _little _far," Weiss said in a worried tone.

"What blood fetish thing? Blood sausage in any form is a good source of protein and essentially carb-free, while also carrying benefits from all the other organs that go into it like heart and liver which are excellent sources of iron and regenerative enzymes," Jack explained.

" . . . Oh…" Weiss said after a few seconds, having not considered the health benefits behind it. She'd just assumed he was eating _blood _sausage to feed the rumors.

"Besides, it's a good way to use every part of the animal, and it's not like I could be picky or anything," the Faunus shrugged. "There's some batter left, so if anyone's still hungry, they can have some waffles while they wait."

"NEVAAAAH!" Nora shouted as she brandished her Magnhild.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After Nora had been convinced _not _to smash the waffle iron into a million pieces as recompense for its supposed sins against the culinary patron goddess of pancakes, and everyone's cuts of Saber Rabbit were finished cooking, the members of Team RWBBY and JNPR all sat down to have a filling, if not healthy, brunch. The scent wafting through the air was notably different from beef, and had a sweet undertone from the use of Red Sap during the cooking process for either the glaze or the sauce. That on top of the fresh herbs made the dining room smell earthy like the forest, though the fresh fruit and berries kept it from being overbearing to the palette.

"Mmm! This Saber Burger is so juicy," Ruby hummed as she ate her meal with extra ketchup. In addition to cheese, Jack was able to squeeze in tomato, lettuce, onion, and pickle.

"These ribs are the _bomb_!" Yang cheered, a mix of barbecue and Red Sap staining her face as she dug in.

"This round really is lean," Blake said eating a thin slice.

"I never knew rabbit meat in _any _variety could taste like this. I'm used to filet mignon from _cattle_, but this is a welcome culinary experience," Weiss said as she slowly savored her meal with all the daintiness and grace of a prim and proper lady.

"You and Ren have really outdone yourselves," Pyrrha said cutting into her round, rubbing the slice through some Red Sap sauce.

"This Saber Tenderloin turned out better than I expected," Ren commented as he ate.

"Hey guys, where'd Nora go?" Jaune asked looking around, everyone just now noticing the lack of a certain someone who by all rights they would've expected to be drowning her Saber Ribs in Red Sap. Looking over his shoulder, Jaune came face to face with the Saber Rabbit from before.

"OOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" Nora shouted waggling her fingers from under its paws.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Jaune screamed at the top of his lungs and his mouth opened comically wide.

"I thought you were going to use that thing as a _rug_," Jack deadpanned as Jaune fainted in fright, Pyrrha rushing over to his side to help him up.

"What good is a Saber Rabbit-skin rug if you can't throw it over your head and scare people half to death with it?" Nora asked as she grabbed a toothbrush from out of nowhere and proceeded to brush one of the "rug's" massive canines.

"Alright, but next animal we hunt down together, _I _get the skin."

"Is that my toothbrush?" Ren asked.

"Fair enough," Nora said ignoring him.

" . . . This is my new normal," Weiss noted after a few seconds of digesting everything.

"I know. Isn't it awesome?" Yang asked with a cheeky grin.

"Still, that seems a bit _random_, don't you think?" Blake asked.

"Oh what, just because I drown my pancakes in syrup _one _time-"

"Twenty times."

"You all automatically assume that's _what _I'm going to do at every opportunity?" Nora asked, Ren's interjection notwithstanding. Of course, it didn't help her case that at the moment she _was _drowning her food, albeit in Red Sap instead of syrup.

"By the way, how's the blood sausage?" Ruby asked.

"Good. Has a bit of a metallic taste, but then again it _does _have chopped liver in it," the Faunus replied as he ate his meal with a side of scrambled eggs.

"Can I try some?"

"Sure. Why not?" Jack asked before skewering a slice and holding it out for Ruby to take.

_***Munch*Munch*Munch* **_"Hmmm… Not bad," Ruby said nodding her head. "A little metal-y, but it's pretty good."

"It's a bit of an acquired taste," Jack shrugged. "Took me a while to broaden my horizons. Of course, since I was raised on stuff like this, it's kinda hard to stomach over-processed food, like twinkies or funnel cakes."

"GASP!" Nora said. Aloud.

"Well, to be fair, funnel cakes are super-oily, and I can't stand them too much either," Yang shrugged.

"What are you talking about? Funnel cakes are _delicious_!" Ruby said as she squeezed a carton of milk to death.

"Last week when they served them in the cafeteria, you drowned yours in so much powdered sugar I got diabetes just _looking _at it!" Weiss squawked.

"This is an awful lot of dialogue surrounding just a meal," Blake commented.

"No-one asked the peanut gallery," Jack deadpanned.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Mmm! I'm stuffed!" Nora said as she picked bits of Saber Rabbit out of her teeth.

"It _was _a rather nice meal," Weiss contested as she daintily dabbed the corners of her mouth.

"Kinda wish I had some _fries _to go with this," Ruby commented.

"Ruby!" Yang chided.

"This _was _a rather nice meal," Ren commented.

"I wonder what things will be like once we begin taking missions together," Blake idly thought.

"That time might come sooner rather than later."

"Glynda. You're looking well this morning," Jack greeted. "Care for some breakfast. There's still a couple cuts in the fridge."

"I've already eaten, thanks," the sorceress replied.

"What was that you were talking about earlier?" Blake asked.

"Ozpin wanted to have a word with you in his office," the blond replied. "It may, or may not, be about a mission."

"Really? Then let's go!" Jaune said getting up from his seat.

"Not _you_," Glynda said causing the younger blond to stop cold. "Them," she said motioning to Team RWBBY. "I'm sure your time would be better spent training for Sports Day. You wouldn't want to face expulsion because of a poor performance, would you?"

" . . . No," the blond sighed as he sat back down, the professor's tone reminding him of how-badly he did during her Final.

"When you say, '_may or may not_'_, _is that code for we _do _have a mission, or do _not_?" Ruby asked. Hunters, even those of training, were considered separate from the "allegiance" of their Home Kingdoms, and were thus free to carry out whatever work they wished from the Mission Boards, be it whatever it is they're doing, or whomever they're doing it _for_. However, _access _to them for trainees was largely restricted.

"You'll just have to see Ozpin about that," Glynda replied as she adjusted her glasses. "Clean up the mess you made, and then make your way to his office. You all have a nice day," she said before walking off.

"That was certainly… unexpected," Weiss said finding the right word.

"You could say _that _again," Jack said, if only to maintain his cover for the fact that he _did _see this coming. _'Still, Ozpin could've been a little more _subtle _about it, instead of sending Glynda out into the open like this.'_

"You should probably get going," Pyrrha said as she began collecting all the plates and utensils. "We'll take care of things here. Think of it as a thank-you for the wonderful breakfast."

"Are you sure it isn't too much trouble?" Yang asked.

"No… no problem at all," Jaune replied. _"Feels like all I'm good for," _he muttered to himself.

"Alright then! Let's roll out, Team Ruby!" the titular leader of the team whooped.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A very satisfying brunch concluded, Team RWBBY gathered their gear and made their way to Ozpin's office. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, six people to an elevator, but they all managed to get to the top floor without incident. When they arrived, Ozpin was juggling paperwork and scrambled eggs with a side of bacon.

"_Man that smells good,"_ Yang hummed.

"_Yang, you ate less than half an hour ago!"_ Weiss hissed.

"_Hey, I'm a growing girl,"_ she said flaunting her breasts. _"You could stand to eat a little more too, you know," _she said poking at the heiress' chest.

"_Guys! Shush! This is an important meeting!"_ Ruby hissed being the voice of reason. "Headmaster Ozpin, you had a mission for us?"

"More or less. Whether it escalates into something that requires _fighting _has yet to be seen," Ozpin replied as he began typing on his console, a holographic image of the town square appearing a moment later. It was a wide-open space, the ground covered in cobblestones, and in the center was a large fountain, depicting the founder of Vale after the Great War. An iconic tourist attraction due to the fountain which was a unique blending of form and function in the Renaissance of Color after the war, what stood out about this image however was what _did _stand out; a large crimson orb floating above the lip of the fountain at the statue's back, swirling colors giving it the visage of a cloudy day amidst a setting sun.

"Whoa… What is that thing?" Ruby said as she stared at the image.

"_Ruby of Grief?"_ Jack muttered under his breath.

"Huh?"

"Not you," Jack corrected. "_That_," he said pointing at the crimson-colored orb in the picture. "The Ruby of Grief, otherwise known as the Crimson Orb, is a manifestation of the remorse and sadness left behind by unfortunate souls that die or are killed suddenly. Those orbs resonate with those powerful emotions sealed within, and because of that lingering grief, regret, anger, or even hatred, the appearance of these orbs throughout history has often been considered an ill omen associated with catastrophe."

"That is the same assumption myself and other members of the staff needed clarified," Ozpin stated. "I cannot express in words the potential danger this phenomena represents."

"What's the big deal? It looks kinda pretty actually," Yang commented idly.

"In ancient times, Rubies of Grief were complete unknowns, incapable of being moved or destroyed, and because negative emotion festered around them, the Creatures of Grimm were drawn to them like moths to a flame," Ozpin explained. "People fear what they do not understand, as fear is the path to the darkness. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate… leads to suffering."

"I think I would've remembered something like this from history class," Yang said crossing her arms.

"The topic isn't discussed much anymore because Rubies of Grief haven't been seen since before the Great War. Most just think of it as myth, and the Pulsian faith is the only one that acknowledges their existence as fact."

"Pulsian?" Ruby asked.

"Pulse refers to a deity which holds an affinity to the earth and the material world. It's an old religion predating the present Kingdoms that the Faunus Tribes of old from as far back as the advent of recorded history would live by, abiding by the principles of what is now known as Darwinism, and the more primal aspects of nature where only the strongest survive," Jack explained with crossed arms. "Pulse's ways are often standalone, culminating into tests of might and will among each individual, and once Pulse has given his blessing to the survivors, he will leave them to fend for themselves. As a result, people's perception of Pulse throughout history has varied greatly. To the Faunus, he's seen as a provider and hallowed god of the earth. To Humans, he's considered a tyrannical and dark deity representing savagery and barbarism."

"Wait, who's Etro then?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head, remembering how Jack would sometimes mutter her name under his breath in the religious context.

"I believe we are all getting off-topic here," Ozpin interjected. "Separating the religious aspects from this, this Ruby of Grief isn't something that can simply be ignored."

"So what you're saying is… this _thing _being in Vale… is going to scare people, and that fear will draw the Grimm to our borders?" Weiss asked.

"You're correct," Ozpin replied with a nod. "Right now the fear is small, but as word of mouth spreads, people will become anxious, and in time the negative emotions that such an unknown yields will multiply without end, compounding until Grimm from across the continent are drawn here. In such numbers, I fear the Kingdom of Vale may fall swiftly, and return once again, to the darkness."

"This is really ominous and all, but what does this have to do with us?" Yang asked.

"While all of you have led happy lives, some… happier than others, the unmistakable shadow of grief hovers over all of you, and that very same grief you all have, might be what is necessary to _commune _with the fallen soul or souls within this Ruby of Grief, and _Resolve _it."

"_Resolve_? _That's _the word you're going for?" Jack asked skeptically.

"Similar to superstition about ghosts or specters, historians believe that Rubies of Grief act like lingering spirits, bound to this mortal plane by things left undone or words left unsaid. It's possible that whoever died and created this Ruby of Grief, has a final wish that has gone unfulfilled, and that desire was strong enough to persist even after death," Ozpin explained.

"And what makes you think this is a _things-left-unsaid _kinda deal?" Yang asked.

"Some historians have recorded that the carrying-out of certain tasks _has _caused Rubies of Grief to disappear, so this course of action is entirely feasible."

"How come no-one _else _has tried _Resolving_ this?" Weiss questioned.

"All others that have approached it quickly fell into a state of unconsciousness before bridging even half the gap, and any machinery sent towards it ceases function due to the electromagnetic waves it emanates into the surrounding atmosphere. That being said, I believe that among the five of you, that you may be able to solve this crisis in-the-making."

"And how long has this thing been here?" Weiss asked looking at the picture. Were anyone but Ozpin showing this to her, she'd have thought it was doctored.

"One week."

"One week?! And we're being told about this _now_!?" Yang raged. "If this thing's as dangerous as you say it is, why are we only hearing about this now?"

"I did not want to interfere with finals," Ozpin replied with a small shrug.

"And you couldn't think of… _anyone _else to deal with this?" Jack asked.

"Up until now, the need to deal with this was not pressing. I've called an old friend of mine for help, but he will not be here for some time, and all other Hunters at my disposal are either unavailable or otherwise preoccupied. In the meantime, I'd like to have some of my best and brightest on this case," Ozpin answered.

"Well don't you worry Ozpin, you can count on us!" Ruby said pounding her chest.

"That's good to hear. I'll arrange for a pilot to take you down to the city at your earliest convenience," Ozpin said with a smile as he looked down to his console, only to look back up. "By the way, before you go, would any of you be interested in a cup of hot chocolate?" he asked seemingly out of nowhere, getting raised eyebrows at the man's informality. "Ruby? Weiss? Blake? Yang? . . . Jack?"

"Sure. Why not?" Jack shrugged, catching the momentary mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Can I get marshmallows in mine?" Ruby asked as she followed Ozpin and Jack to the side.

"I certainly don't see why not," the headmaster shrugged. "Marshmallows are a comfort-food of mine, actually."

"Maybe some other time," Weiss respectfully declined. Blake shook her head, while Yang shrugged her shoulders and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate with her sister.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright team! We have our assignment!" Ruby said enthusiastically to everyone as they rode the elevator down, Glynda staying behind. "I have the name of the pilot we need to ask for in the hangar, so we'll get our gear ready and meet up at the airfield in front of the school in one hour."

"I'm glad you're taking this so seriously," Weiss said nodding her head. While initially the fifteen-year-old was _insufferable _to think of as a leader, it was obvious that Ozpin's thrusting of responsibility unto her had given her reason to become more serious in her line of work.

"I'm sure I can squeeze in some last-minute weapon maintenance before we go," Blake hummed.

"And I'll see about getting some extra ammo," Yang added. "Wouldn't want to run out in the middle of a fight."

"I need to take care of an errand and I'll be right behind you," Jack said, the team splitting up for their individual tasks once the elevator doors opened.

"Alright then, we'll see you then, Jack. Later!" Ruby said running off.

"Yeah, later," Jack replied as they left the building.

Fast-walking to the library, he went to the lower floor and took a small gamble at one of the private study rooms, which paid off when Ozpin's access codes granted him unimpeded access. Locking the door behind him, he turned the mug in his hands over, a small SimCard stuck to the underside. Peeling it away and slotting it into his DataPad, a security check ran on the piece of hardware before the hidden message was delivered.

**Jack. If you're receiving this message, then the handoff went without a hitch.**

**As you suspect, there is more to this mission than meets the eye. Last week, a Faunus woman was raped and subsequently murdered, her body left in the town square. Hours after VPD recovered her body, the Ruby of Grief manifested above her final resting place, and since then the entire area within a fifty foot radius has been a massive dead-zone. Mechs lose all power regardless of power source, and Humans experience near-crippling disorientation, requiring rescue.**

**The Circle of Man is likely involved, based on veiled witness statements of people wearing attire similar to their uniform. However, certain… unscrupulous members of the VPD have conspired to conceal evidence, as I'm sure you're already aware, and many murders go this way unfortunately. Without any form of proof, nothing can be done about this at the time. However, I assure you, I will do all I can to change things and hopefully stem the tide of violence from the White Fang regarding this travesty.**

**What I need **_**you **_**to do, is keep an ear to the ground. And, if on the off-chance you happen to come across any Hoods during your mission who look suspicious, well… I'm sure a self-defense plea backed up by yours truly would carry plenty of weight. And rest assured, the Hunter Union will not tolerate personal rights being denied to one of their own. Remember, a Huntsman, even one in training, has more political power than the police and even the army.**

'_Let's hope they cleaned up the chalk outline then,' _Jack hummed to himself as he deleted the message, removed the SimCard, and crushed it between his fingertips to conceal the vidence. Flexing his claws before retracting them, he made his way out of the library. Given the Faunus woman had been murdered a week ago, any _conventional _measures of tracking her killers would've already gone cold, and if the VPD was really concealing evidence, that was another dead end right there.

However, if scripture was true and the Ruby of Grief "spoke" to those who could approach it, it might be possible to get clues as to her killers that way. He owed it to one who had been violated in every sense of the word, and he never had any qualms with stringing up a Hood by their entrails.

Of course, he'd need to keep Ruby out of visual range when he went on his hypothetical killing spree. If he ever caught wind of those guys anyway. And if not him, a note slipped to an old White Fang dead drop would suffice just as well. And just because he and his rival were no longer on good terms, didn't mean that Adam wouldn't appreciate an "anonymous tip" from "a reliable source".

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

An hour had passed, and as agreed, the members of Team RWBBY had gathered at the airfield in front of the school. While the latter-fifths of the team were standing in the middle of the airfield, Ruby was going around from person to person, asking for the name of the pilot that Ozpin had arranged for them. Weiss and the others said they'd help too, but Ruby insisted she start acting like team leader and do a little groundwork herself.

"Sazh… I think I remember that name…" Weiss hummed.

"Wait, wasn't that the name of the pilot in that airship? The one who blew up that Ursa Major?" Blake asked.

"Hey, you're right!" Yang realized. "Man, that thing was packing some _major _fireworks. If I didn't have other things to worry about at the time, I'm sure I would've gotten more out of it."

"At least you have your priorities straight," Jack shrugged. "When do you think Ruby will find this guy?"

"Don't know. Jack…" Yang said looking toward her teammate. "Did you do something with your hair?"

"No. Why?"

"Because there's this yellow puffball sticking up, right there," she said pointing at his head. Weiss and Blake looked up to see a blond-colored ball of fluff atop his monochrome-colored hair. A few seconds later, the ball of fluff revealed itself to be a golden chick with an orange beak.

"What is that thing?" Blake asked as it started flying around, even on teeny-tiny wings.

"A Chocobo Chick? What's one of _those _doing at Beacon?" Weiss asked holding out her finger, the tiny avian landing on it and giving her a look before fluttering around and roosting in Yang's mane of hair.

"Check me out, I'm a _chick _magnet," the blond grinned, the Chocobo Chick chirping as it fluffed up its roost.

"That was so lame," Blake deadpanned.

" . . . I thought it was good," Jack shrugged.

"Aw, thanks Jack. You're the _best_!" the blond said with a beautific grin as she wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug, burying his face in her cleavage much to Weiss' ire.

"Yang! Remove his face from your cleavage this instant! That's highly inappropriate!" the heiress scowled.

"Grow up, Weisscream, it's all in good fun," Yang said as she rested her chin on Jack's hair.

"Release him! I'll not have you slander our team's name with perverse acts such as this!" Weiss said drawing her Myrtenaster.

"Bring it on, Ice Queen!" Yang said with a grin as she tossed Jack aside and cocked her Ember Celica. The two narrowing their eyes at one another, Blake held the wandering Chocobo Chick in her hands, while Jack dusted himself off and wondered just how far the two of them would take things. He knew better than to get _between _two girls who had decided to settle their differences with violence.

The two suddenly lunging at one another, Weiss' Mysternaster thrust forward while Yang's Ember Celica were cocked back, moments before they collided, the ground between them lit up in sparks, a loud _***BANG-BANG-BANG* **_causing them to throw themselves off their crash-course. Looking up, they saw a middle-aged black man with an afro and thin beard heading towards them, wisps of smoke wafting off the ends of his black dual pistols. His attire consisted off a long olive coat with black cuffs, lapels, collar, and silver buttons, a white button-down shirt, khaki trousers with gun holsters synched to his legs, and black buckled engineer boots, as well as fingerless black gloves on his hands.

"Easy, ladies. The airfield isn't a place for fighting, you know," the man chastised as he twirled his pistols on his fingers before dropping them down into his holsters. As he walked up to the group, the Chocobo Chick in Blake's hands chirruped before flying around him, and then settling down onto his afro like a bird's nest. "Hey little guy. So this is where you wandered off to."

"I take it he's yours?" Blake asked.

"My son's, actually," the man replied. "And it's a _she_, just to set the records straight."

"That shoulder patch… I take it you're a pilot?" Jack asked pointing to the man's left shoulder. A yellow strap of leather stopping just above the elbow was bolted to his olive overcoat, and on it was a silver shield-shaped plate, while atop it was a yellow-and-white shield slightly smaller in size, a pair of black feather-like emblems embossed on it in an **X** shape.

"Yep. Sazh Katzroy, at your service," the man replied.

"Hey Ruby! We found the guy!" Yang shouted at her sister, who bolted over to them in a blur of rose petals.

"Whoo. Thank goodness. I was running out of people to ask," the red-tinged brunette sighed as she ran over to them. "You're our pilot for the day?"

"Yep. We'll be taking a Bullhead so we don't scare the locals," the man replied. "Come with me down to the Hangar and we'll get on our way," he said walking to the left of the airfield away from the path to Beacon.

Team RWBBY followed him around some trees, though to their confusion they came upon a small building scarcely large enough to hold a couple dozen _people, _let alone an aircraft. Sazh entered it without pause, and they did too, whereupon following him they came upon a lobby of sorts with well-worn floor tiles, yellowed windows, and an old receptionist desk off to the right, sofas and a table off to the left. An old man wearing aviator sunglasses sat behind the desk and waved them all in, the group following sash towards an open metal box in the wall. Once they were all in, Sazh pulled a couple grates closed, and then pressed a button on the wall, the box shuddering before it descended.

"This is one old elevator," Yang noted as they descended into a tunnel with aged lighting.

"Well, this thing has been here since the first airships took to the skies, so yeah, it's pretty old," Sazh shrugged.

"Where is this hangar we're going to?" Ruby asked.

"Look for yourself," Sazh said motioning to the grates at their front.

The shaft opening up, eyes widened as they entered a massive underground cavern, the noise of faculty and machinery filling the air as they beheld countless levels of parking space for airships staggered like massive stairs, each numbered with bright fluorescent bold numbers and letters. Some airships were being refueled, others undergoing repairs, some coming and going. Looking over to the right, they saw a massive opening that gave a remarkable view of Vale to the west, countless meters in height and width, the sound of rushing water audible as mist floated through the air on the wind, giving rise to many rainbows.

"Whoa…" Ruby gawked as they finally came to the ground floor at the bank of elevators. "_This _is where they keep the airships?"

"Well, there isn't really anywhere on school grounds they could be kept after the expansion of the grounds. At least not anywhere that's safe from the Grimm I mean," Sazh shrugged as he opened the grates and led them all out.

"What's stopping them from climbing up?" Yang asked.

"A sheer and slippery rock face, and a thirty-story drop for any slip-ups," the man answered. "Of course there's also the port at the bottom they have to get by, and if all-else fails, we can drop massive shutters and deploy downward-facing turrets."

"So coooool…" Ruby awed as she took everything in. "Look! There's the AC-220 Gunship from before… and over there's a D77-TC Pelican… and that's a D79H-TC next to it… Wow, an AV-22 Spawowhawk and an AV-49 Attack VTOL… OH MY GOSH! A GA-TL1 Longsword-Class Interceptor! I only saw those in _books_!" she gaped as she clapped her face in surprise.

"She is _really _enjoying herself isn't she?" Weiss asked as Ruby continued to name the varying types of airships receiving work. She had of course heard of how there was a massive Hangar underneath Beacon where countless airships from all over the world appropriated supplies and received repairs, but to see, and _hear _it in person was a whole other statement. And it wasn't just Valian airships. There were also those from Mistral, Atlas, and even Vacuo.

"Yeah, she's _sooooo _cute when she's like this," Yang cooed as Ruby geeked out over a plasma welder.

"While this behavior is a _tad _unprofessional… I will consent to let her have this," Weiss consented. "But we mustn't dawdle! Ozpin gave us a job to do, and by all that is sacred, we shall not fail in our appointed task."

"You really like to hear yourself talk, don't you?" Blake queried.

"Blake, be nice," Jack chided lightly. "If _I _of all people can get along with her, so can you."

"I… I guess so," Blake conceded. _'He's right. If Jack the Ri… If Jack Braxton, who has more right to despise people like the Schnee than anyone, can play nice, why not me?' _she asked herself.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

While Sazh ran through a quick checklist, Team RWBBY waited patiently in the passenger compartment until it was time for dustoff. Everyone ran final checks on their weapons, took stock of their ammo, or otherwise meditated during the wait. The engines roaring to life, everyone braced themselves as the Bullhead suddenly rose into the air, hovering slowly towards the center aisle of the hangar before shooting out from bellow Beacon Cliff, soaring over the miniature port down at the bottom as they flew towards Vale amidst other air traffic.

"Hey Jack, now that we're underway, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Ruby. Ask away."

"Who's this Etro person? The one you talk about sometimes?"

"Etro… is one of the major icons of the Pulsian faith," Jack mused after a couple seconds. "Like Doctor Oobleck may've said in class, religion was a large part in many of the racial wars of the past, so it's understandable that you don't know."

"Oh. What was Etro the goddess _of_?" the impressionable teen asked.

"In the ancient annals of Gran Pulse, Etro appears as the Goddess of Death and Chaos, said to reside in the world where souls of the dead find their rest- Valhalla. It is said that the universe is divided in half: the Visible World, or the world of the living, and the Invisible World, or the world of the dead. Etro protects this balance, preventing the destruction of the known universe," Jack narrated. "Among the other gods of the Pulsian faith, she was considered a foolish goddess who held great affection for humanity, giving all of herself for their sake until she sacrificed her own life and fell into the long sleep of death."

"Wow…" Yang awed.

"Etro was created by the god Bhunivelze, who became the sole ruler of the world by defeating his mother Mwynn and banishing her into the world of the dead. This did not satisfy him, as Bhunivelze believed all things were destined to die due to a curse laid upon the world by his mother. To reach the realm of the dead and destroy her, Bhunivelze created the three deities Pulse, Lindzei, and Etro. Etro was the second deity created after Pulse, though Bhunivelze regretted having created her, as he unknowingly made her in the image of Mwynn, his mother. From his fear of her, he gave her no powers to create anything of her own," Jack went on to say, and to hear how Etro was given no powers to create instilled a sense of sadness in those that listened. "Bhunivelze then crystallized himself to sleep until his children would find the door to reach the realm of the dead. While Pulse and Lindzei were busy creating the world and many others like themselves, Etro was lonely, and thus out of desire for Bhunivelze's attention, she thus tore up her body and disappeared from the world, Lindzei using her spilled blood to create all mankind. Upon entering Valhalla, the middle realm between the Visible World and the Invisible World, Etro found Mwynn as she was almost overtaken by the Chaos that festered as a result of Bhunivelze's attempt to reach the unseen realm. Before disappearing into the Chaos, Mwynn tasked Etro with protecting the balance of the universe. Growing fond of the beings created from her blood, she bestowed upon each of them a piece of the Chaos, which became their _heart_, or Soul. From then-on she acted as their guide: upon death, their heart and soul would return to Valhalla, melt into the Chaos, and be retrieved from within and guided back to the mortal realm to be reborn."

"That is _some _creation myth," Ruby hummed.

"That's just part of it. To tell you the truth, the worshipers of Etro are actually a minority. Most Faunus worship Pulse or Lindzei, but my mother and I always felt a special connection to Etro. Plus, the loneliness she felt… is something I can relate to on a personal level," he said somberly as he crossed his arms.

"Well I hope you don't feel that way any_more_," Yang said wrapping an arm around his shoulder and drawing him in, pressing his body against her own.

"Yeah! And if you need a place to stay during the break, I'm _sure _we can talk dad into letting you stay with us," Ruby said giving him a hug from the other side. "What about _you _Blake? You have any family nearby?"

"My family lives really far into the Frontier. Several days by boat. It isn't the kind of place you can go back and forth from on a whim," Blake deflected.***Retconned***

"So what do you think we'll find once we get to town?" Yang asked.

"A mysterious red sphere floating ominously above the ground with lots of people hovering behind holographic police tape?" Weiss asked rhetorically.

"What makes you say _that_?"

"I can see it from here," the heiress said pointing out the side. Visible from where they were was the town square, a band of police tape keeping everyone away, with scattered police and mechs forming a perimeter.

"Huh…" Ruby hummed as she took a look.

"Let's hope Ozpin gave the fuzz the heads-up, otherwise we're going to wind up in jail if we try getting near that thing," Yang said crossing her arms.

"Technically we'll go to _holding _first," Jack clarified.

"It frightens me that there was _no _pause before that statement," Weiss said giving him a look.

"Over a dozen false arrests, none of them legitimate," the Faunus countered.

"Ooh, yikes," Yang hissed.

"Yikes indeed."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After disembarking at the nearest skyport, Team RWBBY grabbed a couple hotdogs from a racially-tolerant vendor and made their way to the town square. Ruby drowned hers in ketchup, Yang added a squiggle of mustard, Blake ate hers plain, Weiss abstained for health reasons, and Jack loaded his up with _everything_. Their energy-boosters down the hatch, the Team eventually approached the town square, many people rubber-necking around the site.

"What's with the robots?" Yang asked pointing to the Combat Androids standing alongside the police. They had black endoskeletons, gray joints, and white armor giving them a vaguely humanoid shape. Rings around their shoulders, hips, and eyes glowed bright red, while their hands held M-3 Predator heavy pistols.

"Those would be LOKI Mechs, a bipedal humanoid security robot designed for security detail and guard duty in locations where manpower is an issue, or where the use of people for "around-the-clock" shifts is unfeasible," Ruby answered. "They were created and manufactured by Asgard Industries out of Mistral, a robotics conglomerate that sells combat androids in the public sector, as opposed to the Schnee Dust Company which sells largely to either military or the private sector. While inexpensive and relatively basic as far as security units go, LOKI Mechs have a number of features such as sealed joints to render the risk of shorting out in waterlogged environments moot, basic personality suites, easy programmability for various security tasks, and the ability to be equipped with both lethal and non-lethal weapon systems as the situation dictates, making them a popular choice among consumers."

"You certainly know your stuff," Weiss commented.

"Hey, if it's a weapon, or it can _hold _a weapon, my little sis will know all about it," Yang said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"We should probably get started before we get sidetracked," Blake suggested, the girls nodding as they headed towards the nearest officer.

"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to stay behind the yellow line," the police officer standing by said.

"It's okay, we're students from Beacon. Our Headmaster sent us to investigate that thing right over there," Ruby said pointing at the Ruby of Grief.

"Beacon huh? _That's_ a new one," the officer said rolling his eyes. "I'll say to you what I said to the _last _group of kids that tried getting in for one of your damned selfies. It. Ain't. Happening."

"_Tell him you want to talk to his supervisor. And if that doesn't work, pull _rank_," _Jack whispered into her ear.

"I want to talk to your supervisor," Ruby parroted almost immediately, showing the kind of faith she had in him. "Otherwise I'll have to pull _rank _on you."

"Yeah right," the officer said rolling his eyes.

"Fine then. I guess we'll just have to tell our Headmaster that the VPD is interfering with a Hunter Union investigation," Yang shrugged as she took out her Scroll.

"There won't be any need for that," a man wearing a Lieutenant's gold bar said coming up to the group. "I'm Lieutenant Andersmith. I just got the call a minute ago that Beacon would be sending some people by… I'd assumed he was sending _faculty_, not kids."

"Yeah, well, we're all kinda prodigies, so…" Yang trailed off as she tooted her own horn.

"What's the situation here?" Jack asked.

"You probably know just as much as I do. Last week that _thing_ suddenly appeared in the town square and anyone near it lost consciousness. We tried dragging them back with mechs, but _that _didn't work, so we had to get someone from the rodeo to lasso them away from it," Andersmith replied.

"Well, if we're going to try our hand at investigating, we'll need some of this foot traffic cleared out," Blake hummed as she looked at all the people, most taking pictures and openly gawking like they'd never seen something out-of-the-ordinary before.

"That'll be easier said than done," the man replied. "We've had people rubber-necking almost around-the-clock. We had to redirect LOKIs from other precincts just so no one'd try getting near Red One again."

"Red One?" Weiss asked.

"It's what we call the big red thing, since no-one upstairs will tell us _what _it is, only that we should be keeping people away from it."

"Let's just say, that thing's dangerous in the long-term, and that we need to Resolve this thing quickly," Jack clarified.

"I feel like there was a capital R in that last word," Andersmith said with crossed arms.

"To be fair, we don't even know if _we _can do anything about this," Weiss clarified. "Right now, we should focus on investigating the anomaly before getting ahead of ourselves and making promises we can't keep."

"Jack, can your _mystic third eye_ tell us anything?" Yang asked. She still didn't know who "Master Luca" was, but apparently he helped hone Jack's auric manipulation from "peeling an onion with a chainsaw" to "wielding a scalpel with pianist's fingers".

"Hmmm…" Jack hummed as he turned toward the Crimson Orb. Slowly closing his eyes, his breathing slowed to a crawl, his hair wavering as crimson light flickered out through the cracks between his eyelids. Hissing and stepping back, his fingers went to the bridge of his nose. "Ngh. It's just like Ozpin said. That thing's a big, knotted ball of negative emotions. No _wonder _people getting near that thing lose consciousness. That much regret, and anger, it's _suffocating_," he said shaking his head. _'And it isn't just_ one _death that made this. Whatever negative energy's making that thing up, it's been festering for a _long _time,_' he thought to himself.

"Sooo… that thing's _magic_?" Andersmith asked.

"If you consider Aura _magic_, then sure, why not," the Faunus shrugged.

"So, how do you want to do this?" Andersmith asked turning to Ruby. Unlike most people in the police or army, the police lieutenant was being _really _cooperative. Then again, maybe he just valued the safety of the people as a whole over a little pride.

"I think we should send one of our own out there, see how close they can get before fading out," Ruby postulated. "And so we don't lose them out there, I think we should have a rope tied around them in advance."

"Where are we going to get _rope_?" Blake asked.

"I have some in the back of my patrol car. If you wait a minute I can bring it right here," Andersmith replied.

"Why is there rope in the back of a police car?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In case of a _rope _emergency," the man answered without a pause.

" . . . Well alright then," the heiress shrugged.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Tell me why I'm not the one going first again?" Ruby asked as Weiss stepped towards the holographic police tape, a length of rope tied around her waist, the rest of Team RWBBY and Andersmith holding the other end. There would've been more cops helping, but the last time security went lax, some dumbass rushed in there trying to get a selfie with the "weird thing" in town square, and practically busted their head open when they tripped and hit the ground face-first.

"We need someone to oversee the operation and change paradigms accordingly," the heiress answered.

"Alright… But if you start getting light-headed or anything, you tug on the rope, alright?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"Don't worry. I know how to not get in over my head," the heiress replied. Drawing her Myrtenaster and slowly walking forward, Andersmith opened his Scroll and temporarily shut down the alarms on the length of "tape" the heiress walked through. Passer-by started taking pictures in earnest, but the police on site began pushing them back. When that didn't work, the LOKI Mechs brandished stun batons, and the rubberneckers were more-willing to comply.

"How you doing, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"I'm fine. There's only a little lightheadedness," the heiress said as she passed the one-quarter mark. Moments later, a knot of despair not her own formed in the pit of her stomach, followed by a weight pressing itself down on her shoulders. Her steps began to falter, the heiress wobbling from side to side as her vision darkened a few shades. Myrtenaster almost falling out of her hands, she took a knee and propped herself up, glaring at the Crimson Orb before begrudgingly tugging on the rope at her waist, the others getting the signal and helping her backtrack. "Sorry. I couldn't make it very far."

"No, Weiss, it's okay," Ruby said reassuringly. "You're back in one piece and that's all that matters. What did you feel when you were there?"

"I felt… I felt like something _heavy _was pressing down on me. As though the despair of someone who'd been killed was being thrust upon me," the heiress replied.

'_Ah, that's right,' _Jack realized. _'The four of them _assume _someone died, but they don't know that someone was _murdered _as part of a satanic _race war_. Then again, I guess it's for the best.'_

"So who's next?" Blake asked as Weiss loosened the rope enough to slip out of it.

"I'll go," Yang said. "Maybe what we need now is a bit of _muscle_."

"Alright. But don't go too far ahead, okay?" Ruby asked.

Yang simply nodded her head as she synched the rope around her waist before venturing toward the Crimson Orb. There was a little lightheadedness, but she passed the one-quarter mark without any major complications. It was at half that she began to feel heavy, some kind of noise sounding in her ears and her head began to spin. Falling to one knee and propping herself up with her hands, she snapped her head up, embers dancing off her hair and her eyes flashed red before she forced herself to her feet. Nearing the three-quarter mark however, the ground began to heave, the noise in her ears unbearable, and she once more fell to her knees.

"Pull!" Ruby said as she began to drag her sister back past the police tape. Once she was near, she and Blake grabbed her arms before hoisting her up. Setting her down on a nearby bench, Weiss grabbed a bottle of water before splashing it on the blond's face, causing her to sputter as she came back to.

"What… What happened?" she asked.

"You clocked out, that's what happened," Weiss huffed.

"Hey, at least it made it past the quarter-mark."

"Hey!"

"Enough! No bickering!" Ruby ordered. "Yang, what did you see before you collapsed?"

"I… started hearing whispers, and the ground started to spin. I still feel a little dizzy," she admitted.

"That's what other people who got too close said they heard as well," Andersmith hummed. "Like a haunted house on steroids."

"Yeah, except it's out in the open. And that makes the sensations all the more harrowing," Weiss said as she crossed her arms. "Has anyone tried analyzing it yet?"

"A few research institutes have tried, but all they get is static or white noise, and sending anything too close fries the equipment," Andersmith replied as he gestured to piles of equipment scattered around the orb, which wasn't worth the time and effort it would've taken to retrieve. It also served as an object lesson for people to stop wasting money until somebody with _some _idea of what was going on came on-scene.

"We should probably consider pushing everyone out of the town square completely. If one of us _does _manage to get right up to it, the reaction could be… _bothersome_," Jack said crossing his arms.

"How so?" Weiss asked.

"Well, what if this thing has some kind of defense mechanism? With all these spectators packed in barely a stone's throw away, there could be a lot of casualties if something _did _go wrong."

"Better to be safe than sorry, I guess," Andersmith replied. "I'll run this by my superiors. Hopefully covering a smaller area will free up some resources. In the meantime, you kids get some rest."

"Can do!" Yang replied before slumping tiredly. "Still, this kinda sucks. I was hoping I could get to the finish line, at least," she sighed.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. Remember, we're dealing with something completely out of the ordinary," Blake stated. "Still… If this thing really _is _haunted, what're we going to do if we _do _get someone right next to it?"

"We can only do the best we can, and hope a fight doesn't break out," Ruby stated with crossed arms, her stomach growling. "I don't know if it's the stress or what, but I'm suddenly really hungry," she sighed.

"If you want, I can go down the street and grab something," Jack suggested.

"No, you stay here and guard the others. Blake and I will go grab some food. Hopefully, Andersmith will be done getting the people out of the square by the time we're ready to try this again."

"Very well," Jack replied as Ruby and Blake walked off. " . . . So," he hummed a few minutes later as he sat shoulder to shoulder with the busty blond and the stoic heiress.

"So . . . " Yang returned.

"How do you think this will play out?" Weiss questioned.

"Honestly?" Jack asked. "I don't have the slightest idea," he said looking back to the Ruby of Grief, gazing at the swirling shades of red before turning his gaze back to his teammates. "Seeing a Ruby of Grief outside of scripture is a first for me. Let's just hope the _fal'Cie _are a myth, otherwise things could get really messy if we get too close to one of those."

"Fal'Cie?" Weiss asked with a tilt of her head.

"It's an old word meaning _'Servant of God'_. Comparatively, they're basically like _lesser gods _of polytheistic religions," Jack answered. "The fal'Cie supposedly grant certain people tremendous power making them into _l'Cie_, or _'Avatar of God's Servants'_, so as to earn the favor of their own creators through intermediary."

"Great power for running a few errands? That doesn't sound too bad," Yang shrugged. After all, violence _was _the end-all answer to everything when words failed.

"Yeah, well, most of the old stories about l'Cie only end in heartbreak," Jack shrugged thinking back to the old stories predating modern history. "When a fal'Cie makes someone into a l'Cie, they are given a Focus, a _task _that requires completing, and the amount of time they're given is relative to the difficulty of the Focus. Sometimes they're within the capacity of the chosen l'Cie to perform, sometimes they're not. In most cases, the Focus that a l'Cie is given is completely out of their depth to complete, and they're doomed to fail from the very beginning."

"I'm guessing this is where the _heartbreak_ comes in," Weiss stated.

"Yeah. If a l'Cie is unable to complete their Focus within their allotted time, or they give in to hopelessness and despair, they become Cie'th."

"What does _that _mean?" Yang asked.

"The best translation I ever learned was _'Corpse mired in eternal sorrow and regret', _though that might just be what a Cie'th _is_, and not necessarily what the _word_ means," Jack answered. "When a l'Cie fails to fulfill their Focus, they become a Cie'th. Mired in eternal sorrow and regret, robbed of all free will, Cie'th are damned to wander the world unloving and undying, until their corrupted flesh at last can move no more. For Cie'th, there is no salvation," he narrated.

"So… like some kind of _zombie_?" Yang asked.

" . . . Sure, I guess that's one way of putting it," Jack shrugged, finding the comparison rather apt. "A great number of stories involve later l'Cie laying other Cie'th to rest, though whether they're able to move on to Valhalla or not has never really been clearly defined. Mostly jumbled-up metaphors that became really vague because the old fables passed from one mouth to the next."

"So, either carry out god's will, or turn into a… zombie," Weiss said trying to find a better word, only to settle on that. "I can see why Humans consider Pulse to be a savage and barbaric god, if that's the kind of fate that awaits failure."

"Wait, then what happens to the ones that _do _complete their Focus in time? There's gotta be some kinda _reward _at the end of the epic quest, _right_?"

"The stories were usually really ambiguous, but from _my _understanding, at the end of a l'Cie's journey if they're able to complete their Focus, they're given eternal life," he answered, causing Yang and Weiss to gawp. "Of course, the whole _'eternal life' _thing might just be another metaphor, because many of the stories mention a '_crystal sleep' _that l'Cie enter, where they remain until awakened to complete another Focus, usually centuries later when all their friends and family are long dead. For this reason, regardless of the outcome, the fate of a l'Cie had always equated to a death sentence. Only those that were truly desperate for tremendous power would ever become a l'Cie _voluntarily_."

"Okay… I guess I'll be sure to stay away from any fal'Cie if I come across them," Yang said with a shudder. Sure, the power that came with being a l'Cie and he immortality that followed might be tempting for some, but if all that was waiting for you afterward was a life of solitude and servitude, then that wasn't really much of a reward at _all_.

"Given how much they stood out in myth, I'm sure you'd be able to pick them out easily enough. _If _they're actually real," Jack said trying to put her at ease. "Depictions of fal'Cie varied, since it was centuries before Faunus tribes had a common language, but supposedly the fal'Cie were incredibly massive machine-like beings beyond the conventional realm of understanding, so if you ever see something that looks like some kind of Machine God, you're probably on the right track."

" . . . Jack?"

"Yes, Weiss?"

"The deities of your religion frighten me."

"I'm not asking you to _convert _or anything."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A while later, Ruby and Blake returned with takeout. With all the rubberneckers at town square who apparently had hours to burn just _waiting _for the Crimson Orb to do, well, _anything_, business in the surrounding restaurants had been booming, so there was no shortage of product for purchase. To that end, Ruby and Blake returned with a stack of pizzas and cans of soda. Ruby managed to convince Weiss to partake in a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, Blake monopolized an anchovy pizza all for herself, while Yang and Jack split a meat-lovers.

"Mmm! I sure do love _meat_!" Yang said waggling her eyebrows at a certain someone.

"Lame," the rest of RWBBY said in synergy.

"Guh!" Yang flinched as though struck.

"Lewd or not, that was bad even by _your _standards," Weiss huffed.

So suffice it to say, the group enjoyed their meal. Ruby and Blake, especially Blake, blissfully ate their food completely unaware of the rather _heavy _topic discussed between Jack, Wiess, and Yang minutes before. All the talk of fal'Cie, l'Cie, and Cie'th was something that'd needlessly frighten Ruby away from exploring the world beyond Vale, so they'd agreed to keep it to themselves. Since there hadn't been a confirmed fal'Cie/l'Cie relationship in all of _recorded _history, it was likely that the whole thing was part of a creation myth regaling a time when Man and God shared the same world, since there was no evidence to the contrary.

"Mmm! Good stuff!" Ruby said with a grin as she licked her fingers.

"Ruby, that is _most _unsanitary," Weiss scolded as she wiped the girl's hand with a napkin.

"Says the girl with pizza-grease on her cheek," Blake commented.

"Don't worry, I've got it," Jack said dabbing the corner of Weiss' mouth with a napkin.

"O-Oh. Th-Thank you," Weiss stuttered as Jack tended to her.

"Anytime," the Faunus casually replied, thinking nothing of it.

"Hmmmmmm," Yang grumbled as she watched the interaction between Jack and her potential rival. Just because Weiss didn't display any romantic inclinations toward the Faunus _now_, doesn't mean the sentiment couldn't change.

"Alright, now that we're done…" Ruby trailed as she zipped off with her Semblance to the nearest trashcan before zipping back. "We're ready for our third go at Operation: Approach the Crimson Orb."

"Well, third time _is _the charm. So who're we sending?" Yang asked.

"I'll go," Jack said rising from his seat. "I want to get a closer look at the Ruby of Grief anyway, so it's a win-win."

"Alright, but make sure the safety line is nice and secure," Ruby said wrapping it around his waist.

"Right, right," Jack said waving his hand. "Hey Weiss, you going to finish that pizza?"

"Huh? Oh, n-no, here, take it," the heiress said passing the last slice of hers and Ruby's pizza forward, the Faunus taking it from her hand and biting the end without hesitation.

'_I-Indirect kiss…?' _Blake thought as she scribbled in her little black book.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright Jack, remember what I said. If you feel like you can't handle it, just tug on the rope and we'll pull you back in a jiffy," Ruby instructed as Blake helped secure the rope around his waist. For obvious reasons, the raven-haired girl was the team's resident knot expert.

"I hear you," Jack replied testing the strength of the rope. "Alright, I'm moving out."

"Good luck. Try not to die," Yang said jokingly.

"Can do," Jack said stepping through the holographic police tape. Though the police barricade had now been pushed back to the streets and alleys leading into the town square, rubberneckers were still gathered together like it were some kind of spectacle. The only difference, was it was easier to manage on the law's end.

"Maybe you shouldn't say things like that on our first mission," Weiss advised as she fed out rope.

"Oh c'mon, who could it hurt?" Yang asked with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Jack. It could hurt _Jack,_" the heiress answered poignantly

"I don't see what the big deal is. So far all I've seen that big red marble do is _float _there. Other than a little wooziness, it hasn't done _anything_."

"Would you just stop talking before you _jinx _him?" Weiss demanded.

"Didn't think you _believed _in that sort of thing."

"There's nothing wrong with not tempting fate."

"Shush, guys," Ruby shushed. "Jack's past the halfway point, nearing the three-quarter mark. How you doing Jack?" she called out.

"Fine, fine," Jack said, making a show of taking slow, deliberate steps. _'Okay… there's whispering, but nothing I can recognize. A little disorientation, but that's just the haze of negative emotions. I'll probably be able to find out more once I get closer,' _he thought as he slowly passed the three-quarter mark into the final stretch. A few more steps, and the Crimson Orb was right in front of him, the hairs on his neck standing on end simply being _near _the thing. Clenching his fist and steeling himself, he reached out to touch it when suddenly a _***CRASH* **_of lightning in the heavens caused him to flinch.

"Hey Jack, you alright over there?" Ruby called out.

"I'm fine, Ruby!" Jack returned as gray clouds began to form in the sky.

"What do you see?"

"_This _thing. It's just _floating _there."

"Alright then. Try touching it. _Carefully_!"

"Should Jack _really _be touching that thing with his bare hands? We don't know where it's _been_," Weiss stated.

"Well, according to Ozpin, it's been _there _all week," Yang said in a sing-song tone.

"I hate you…" the heiress grumbled.

"Aw, I hate you too~"

"Me too," Blake smirked.

"Focus!" Ruby shouted at the three of them as Jack reached forward to make "first contact".

His fingers slowly waggling up and down, he inhaled deeply as he brought his right hand up to his face and stroked his chin, cupping his elbow with his left hand. Holding both hands forward, and then seemingly _weighing _which one to reach forward with, he eventually settled on his right hand. Slowly reaching forward, he touched the Ruby of Grief with his index finger.

" . . . "

After nothing for several seconds, Jack tapped it a couple more times, then with two fingers, and slowly adding the count until he placed the whole of his palm onto it. The surface was warm as though it were made of stone, but somehow, at the same time it was cold to the touch like metal. It had a liquid-metal texture as he ran his hand across it, yet felt wholly solid as he rapped his knuckle against the side. And yet even though it felt solid, it was _pulsing_, like a beating heart held betwixt bloody fingers.

It was as though reality and mythos were two flaming semi trucks in a head-on collision, sending a cacophony of sensory chaos and shrapnel scattering in all directions, completely disorienting the conceptual senses.

"Well, do you hear anything?" Weiss asked.

"Not yet…" Jack said lightly pressing his ear to the side. Patting his hand in a few places, he stretched his senses to the limit, trying to find _some _kind of clue that would help him Resolve things. After several seconds, there was a violent fluctuation of Aura from within the sphere, every hair on his body standing on end.

**Cue - Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST - God of War  
**

"SHIT!" he swore as he violently leaped back as though burned. Throwing his head backwards and arching his back, blood-colored hands like a mix between jewel and liquid metal just barely grazed the tip of his nose, the limbs rising out the side of the Ruby of Grief like the arms of a woman trying to stave off drowning.

"PULL THE ROPE!" Ruby cried as she processed what she saw. She, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and even Andersmith hauling Jack back as fast as they could haul on the rope, the surface of the Ruby of Grief changed from a shiny metallic sheen, to a dull matte of crimson like blood. Thunder rumbling in the sky, shadows of grief in the form of the silhouettes of wailing women slid across the orb's surface, the sky darkening as spears of lightning punched across the sky, the deafening _***BOOOOM!* **_punctuated by a sudden rise in wind.

"What's going on!?" Yang cried as the wind whipped at her hair. "It's like a bad horror movie out here!"

"I don't know!" Weiss cried. "I might not be able to _'see' _Aura, but what's coming off of that sphere, I can practically _taste _it!"

"Just keep pulling on the rope! Once Jack's on the other side we'll be able to make a run for it!" Blake cried as Jack turned on his heel and made to run towards them.

"JACK!" Ruby cried as one of the arms crossed the impressively-long gap and wrapped itself around his bicep. Another followed suit, blood-like fingers digging into his left side, before another grabbed onto his right ankle, and another on the top of his head. "HOLD OOOON! WE'LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE!" she cried as the arms began to pull Jack backwards, as well as the rest of them by extension. "Weiss! Pin us down!"

"You've got it!" Weiss shouted as she twirled her Myrtenaster around with one hand before stabbing the end into the ground, a line of Glyphs appearing beneath their feet and turning jet-black, holding them all in place. However, just because their feet refused to move, didn't mean it was the same with their grip, their sockets groaning in protests as the phantasmal arms of the Crimson Orb continued to pull the Faunus towards it. "Yang! Blake! Do something!" the heiress shouted as her arm screamed out to let go.

"I can't! We might hit Jack!" Yang bit out as she tightened her grip on the rope. "Blake! My hair!"

"What about it!?"

"Rip it out!"

"WHAT?!" the raven-haired girl squealed, remembering the _last _time the blond went on a rampage.

"There's no time! Just _do _it!" the blond shouted, sweat running down Blake's face before she reached forward, tangling two fingers in the blond's hair before drawing them pack, a trio of golden hairs pulled free.

At the moment the pinpricks of pain lanced across her scalp, Yang's eyes flashed crimson and power coursed through her body. Muscles bulging ever-so-slightly as embers danced in the air, veins bulged around the blond's neck as she pulled back with greater force, practically to the point that Jack began to bend in half. However, what gave first wasn't Jack or even the rope, but the very ground at her feet which, still attached to the Glyph, broke away.

"CRAPBASKEEEEETS!" Ruby cursed as the blond fell away and her load of the work disappeared, the rope jerking in their hands. "AAAGH! I'VE GOT ROPE BURN!" she cried out, but refused to let go.

"Not good, it's like we're being sucked in!" Blake cried as the ground at their feet began to crack from the strain.

"RUBY!" Jack called out as a hand snaked out and grabbed onto his face from behind. "MY FEET ARE SLIPPING!"

"DON'T GIVE UP! WE'LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE!" the leader called out as she pulled for all her worth.

"I DON'T THINK THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!" he shouted as the claws on his feet raked across the ground. _"Ghuk!" _he grunted as another hand reached out, cold fingers digging into his side and causing blood to stain his teeth.

"DON'T GIVE UP! THAT'S _QUITTER-TALK_!" Yang shouted as she grabbed the rope once again, her Aura flaring like a sun as she pulled on the rope.

"I'M NOT GIVING UP!" Jack argued. "Just... JUST CALL FOR HELP! I'LL BE FINE!" he said grabbing his axe with his free hand and raised it into the air.

"JACK! STOP!" Ruby pleaded, realizing what he was about to do.

"DON'T WORRY! WE'LL MEET AGAIN! I PROMISE!" Jack said sending a wink her way, before bringing his arm down.

_***SWISH***_

"NOOOOOOO!" Ruby cried as all of them were sent tumbling backwards.

Elsewhere, the rope having finally given way, Jack's axe left his hands as his feet left the ground, the phantasmal arms pulling his body into the confines of the sphere as though it were water. As the members of Team RWBBY scrambled to their feet and ran towards him, the Faunus' body burst from the side of the Crimson Orb like a man escaping the River Styx. Before anyone could get to him, womanly bodies covered in blood, wailing in anguish and pain, burst from around Jack's flailing body and draped themselves over him, caressing him and whispering into his ears as they pulled him back in.

"JACK!" Ruby cried as she appeared in front of him in a storm of rose petals. Reaching out to one another, the young leader fell short, just barely grazing Jack's fingertips before collapsing to the ground, a lance of anguish tearing through her heart as the Faunus disappeared from view.

**Cue RWBY Soundtrack - I May Fall (Starting Lyrics: "I may fall")  
**

"HRAAAAAGH!" Yang screamed bloody murder as her eyes turned bright red. Aura surging from her body like an exploding sun, the ground _literally _exploded at her feet as she tore across the town square towards the Crimson Orb. Her right arm drawn back as a brilliant crimson banner of flame spilled out of her hair, golden energy swirled around the extended limb as the blond tightened her fist in a knuckle-whitening grip. "GIVE! HIM! BACK!" she roared as she threw her fist forward, her Aura coalescing into an enormous golden dragon with whiskers and antlers that slammed into the Crimson Orb, the shockwave sending cobblestones flying in all directions. "GIVEHIMBACK! GIVEHIMBACK! GIVEHIMBACK! **GIVEHIMBACK!"** she cried as she slammed punch after punch into the Crimson Orb, none as powerful as her opening salvo, the skin on her knuckles beginning to split open and stain her fists red.

"Let him go... LET HIM GO **RIGHT NOW!"** Weiss screamed as her ice-blue eyes sharpened. A whirling Glypha appearing at the tip of her Myrtenaster, the heiress lunged forward, the snowflake overlaid by swords as a massive blade of ice tore through the air, a deafening **_*BOOM* _**pounding the air as the unstoppable force met the unmovable object.

"YOU CAAAN'T HAAAVE HIIIIIM!" Ruby screamed as she leaped backwards. Planting her feet on the side of a patrol car, her Aura exploded and the police car she was standing against crumbled as she tore through the air, spinning like a drill as she tackled the Crimson Orb with everything she was worth. At the same time, Blake sheathed her katana at her side, her hair standing on her end and her eyes narrowing into slits before she swept her sword free, a purple crescent blade of Aura and compressed air tearing through the air and splashing against the spherical prison.

Filled with righteous fury as their friend was ripped from their very arms, Team RWBY attacked the Crimson Orb with everything they had. Their Aura whittling away, the rumbling of thunder in the skies intensified, and the Crimson Orb began to glow bright white from within. Just as Ruby thought they were beginning to see cracks form, a brilliant crimson lance of power tore through the heavens with a loud **_*KWOOOM*_**. A devastating shockwave plowing everything in the square over, the bulk of Team RWBBY was sent tumbling through the air before haplessly slamming into vehicles and walls, pain exploding across their bodies as they slumped to the ground, their vision fading to black.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	31. Born of Grief: The Black Beast

At the last possible second, Yang had thrown herself between Ruby and the wall the younger girl was going to hit, taking the brunt of the blow in her sister's place. As such, Ruby was the first to be roused from unconsciousness. Her heart hammering against her ribcage, her bones aching, and her head pounding as though someone'd taken a sledgehammer to her temple, she squinted her eyes as she came to, grunting, but refusing to whimper, her body spasming in pain.

Struggling to get her legs underneath her, she took a calming breath as she channeled Aura to all the points in her body that hurt, a red aura shining across her body as the pain began to ebb away. A warmness washing over her body, the spots in her vision began to fade, and a few moments later she was back on her feet. Clapping her hands on her cheeks, she blinked her eyes as she took stock of her surroundings.

The people were now gone, the sound of people screaming echoing through the air, and why wouldn't they? Every lamp post was torn from the ground, the nearby windows were all shattered, and the fountain in the center was almost completely destroyed. Cars were either thrown against walls or completely overturned, and in the center of it all was a crater filled with black flame, the Crimson Orb no longer in sight.

"Guys… Can anyone hear me?" Ruby croaked out.

"Yeah… I hear ya," Yang groaned as she came to. Even though her Semblance had turned the damage into power, her hair glowing brightly amidst the darkness cast by thunderclouds, the blond was still hurting, her body covered in slowly-healing bruises. "Why's everything on fire?"

"Jack…" Ruby sniffed. "Jack… he got…"

"Hey, don't worry Rubes…" Yang said as she got to her feet. "Jack promised we'd see him again. Now it's just a matter of finding him again, okay?"

"Yeah… We should probably get the team together. Then we can start looking for Jack."

"Can someone help me up?" a voice croaked out. Ruby and Yang looking around, they traced the source of the voice to a furniture store with a smashed-in window. Running up to it and vaulting over the debris, they found the heiress pinned under an overturned sofa, but otherwise alright.

"Weiss, you survived," Yang said flipping the couch over effortlessly.

"Hey… if my auric control wasn't so exemplary, I wouldn't have been able to mount a proper defense in time…" the heiress said as Ruby helped her to her feet. "What's _your _excuse?"

"Oh, you know…" Yang said cracking her neck. "Adrenaline, sisterly love, and a really thick head."

"Yeah, I should've known," Weiss said as she looked around for her Myrtenaster. Seeing it impaled through a loveseat, the heiress swiftly withdrew it, before a wave of fatigue washed over her. _'I… I did it…' _she realized as her final moments before losing consciousness came to mind. _'I Summoned something! And… all it took… was Jack being ripped from my arms to make it happen,' _she thought as her eyes watered, and she clutched at the front of her blouse.

"Hey, has anyone seen Blake?" Yang asked as she looked around, completely unaware of the heiress' inner turmoil.

"She's over here…" a weary voice said from outside. Ruby and Yang leaping out the smashed-in window, Weiss going through all the trouble of going out the door, the three girls found a weary Andersmith propped up against the side of a car, a little banged up but much better off than those at ground zero. His thumb jabbed over his shoulder, they followed it towards Blake who'd landed in the back of an abandoned convertible, "dat ass" sticking up in the air and the raven-haired girl face-down in the carpet.

"Hey Blake. Blake, you awake," Yang asked as she poked the girl's bodacious booty, causing Weiss to slap at her hands for the scandalous motion.

"Uuuuugh…" the girl groaned as she came to. Fussing at her hair and ensuring her bow was still in place, she rolled all the way into the car before scuttling up to her feet. She'd attempted to halt her momentum with a Clone, but all that did was send her flying into the back of a car instead of through a brick wall. "What happened…? Where's Jack?"

"We… We don't know?" Ruby said as she reached for her Scroll. "C'mon… pick up, pick up."

"Ms. Rose, is that you?"

"It's me Ozpin."

"We lost contact with you. What happened down there?"

"It's Jack…" the girl choked out. "He got… he got-"

"He touched the Ruby of Grief, and it responded. In a _very _bad way," Weiss interjected as she took the Scroll from the crying girl's hands, the girl's sister wrapping her in a hug and stroking her back. "We have no idea _what _happened?"

"Whatever happened, we could see it all the way from Beacon," the man replied. "I have staff stretched thin trying to keep panic levels to a minimum, but I'll send help your way regardless. Is everyone okay?"

"We're a little banged up, but we're fine," Yang grunted.

"Ozpin…" Ruby said taking the Scroll back. "What happened here… It wasn't Jack's _fault_! He just-"

"I know that. Don't worry, Ruby. I'll keep him safe. Just focus on getting your wits about yourselves, and we'll move on from there. Now, I have to go, but we'll be in touch soon."

_*Sniff* _"Thank you, headmaster," Ruby said with a smile as she closed her Scroll, a sigh of relief passing her lips.

"Well, that's _one _less thing we need to worry about," Yang sighed.

"Yes, but we're still a man down," Blake argued. "Does anyone see any sign of him?"

"Do you know what I _don't _see?" the heiress asked. "The Crimson Orb. Where _is _it?"

"Maybe your friend there destroyed it," Andersmith huffed as he got his feet under him.

"Yeah, but what about _him_?" Ruby asked.

"**Uh… Uuugh…"**

"J-Jack!?" Ruby squeaked as she heard a pained grunt emanating from ground zero. Whirling her feet and rushing to the edge of the crater, before her was a sea of ominous black flames, and writhing in the bottom, was a body. "JACK!" Ruby cried as she stepped forward, only to recoil as the black flames lashed out at her leg. "OW!"

"Ruby, are you alright?" Yang said as she caught her sister.

"Yeah, I'm fine. My Aura took the hit for me."

"Is that _Jack _in there?" Weiss said squinting her eyes to peer through the sea of black flames.

"These flames aren't natural," Blake stated, her hairs standing on end as she watched the water from the ruined fountain spill towards the crater, only to evaporate away from the black flames.

"You _think_? _Nothing _about this situation is natural!" Weiss squawked.

"**Gh… Gugh…"**

"Jack! Jack can you hear me?!" Ruby shouted out.

"**Uuuuugh…" **the Faunus groaned as he got to his hands and knees. His body completely wreathed in shadow, the girl's eyes widened as they saw various swirling white tattoos glowing across his body through his clothing.

"Jack, if you're lucid, _speak _to me! Follow the soothing sound of my voice!" Weiss called out.

**"So much grief**_**… **_**so many voices**_**…**_**" **the Faunus groaned as his body shook in pain. The sound of bones creaking causing the girls' stomachs to churn, the Faunus slammed his forehead into the ground, his fingers digging trenches in the dirt as his mouth opened in a soundless cry, blood pouring out into a puddle at his chin. The sound of his screams suddenly intensified as the sounds of bones rearranging met the girls' ears, the four of them looking away as he languished in suffering. The next moment there was a loud **_*BWO-O-O-O-O-O-OM* _**as a dark pulse emanated from the center of the crater and throwing them off their feet. The four easily righted themselves from the much weaker burst of energy, looking upon the crater to see that the black flames had suddenly been extinguished.

"Jack! Jack can you hear me!" Ruby called out, a black-armored hand shooting into view before raking at the ground, the girls gasping in shock as Jack pulled himself out of the crater.

His body was now completely wreathed in shadow, even in the light, not an inch of his dark complexion visible. Protruding from the sides of his skul just above and behind his Human-like ears were a pair of horns that curved forward, the tips pointing slightly upward past his face. As the wind picked up, a long banner of stark-white hair was revealed billowing out behind the Faunus' head, spanning the length of his body. His forearms up to the elbows were covered in jet black armor, articulated claws in the place of fingers. Three bone-like claws protruded from the front of each foot through his sandals, a fourth at his ankle pointing at the ground, the Faunus now standing on the balls of his feet. What was most-shocking however, was that a flat whip-like tail with a jagged spade-like tip at the end had sprouted at the base of his spine.

**"Uuuuugh****_**…**_" **Jack groaned as he raised his face to look at them, his face completely covered in shadow, two circles glowing white, a fanged jack-o-lantern-like grin spread across his face. **"GRAAAAAAAAAGH!" **he suddenly roared, the girl' hair whipping back from the force of it.

"HOSTILE TARGET DETECTED." The girls removing their hands from their ears, saw numerous LOKI lumbering towards Jack through the smoke off to their right. Some were missing an arm, or had pieces of shrapnel in their bodies that would've killed a normal person, but all of them were brandishing either a firearm or a stun baton. "ELIMINATING HOSTILE TARGET."

As a coordinated unit, the whole of the unit leveled their weapons at the transformed Faunus, laser sights piercing the dusty air and dotting his body.

"No! Stop!" Ruby cried as the combat androids opened fire, Dust-propelled rounds screaming through the air. A glint appearing in the transformed Faunus' circular eye, the billowing mane of hair trailing behind him suddenly stiffened before shooting forward, coiling and hardening into a spiral that deflected most of the bullets away from the main body. The volley of gunfire ceasing, as the LOKI reloaded their weapons, "Dark Jack" suddenly shot forward and gored one of the combat androids on his horns, sparks dancing through the air and hydraulic fluid leaking out its chassis as it was thrown to the ground, its head stomped in moments later as Dark Jack let out a bellowing roar.

"What happened to him?!" Weiss cried as the now-feral Faunus shot off at the nearest LOKI, arm drawn back before it bifurcated the combat android with a swipe of its claws, the others opening fire causing Dark Jack to shoot off, running on all fours and low to the ground like a predator.

"The Ruby of Grief! That's _gotta _be it!" Yang shouted over the gunfire as six LOKI formed a ring with their backs together. What they weren't prepared for was for Dark Jack to leap effortlessly overhead and drop down between them, twisting on his heel as his spade-like tail-blade tore through them, scattering metal and limbs in all directions before he was off again.

"What do we do?" Blake asked as the transformed Faunus continued to maul the combat androids left and right, proving too fast for them.

"I… I don't know," Ruby realized as Dark Jack effortlessly tore through the last of the LOKI mechs. Moments later, the sound of groaning metal rung through the air, the girls turning towards a large police van to see the doors buckling as something pushed against them from within. Moments later the metal shell burst, and a hulking bone-white mech stepped out into the open. Unlike the LOKI which were strictly humanoid, the thing stepping out now had a digitigrade leg structure, its body bearing much larger proportions with much thicker armor and more-prominent shoulders, a large barrel-like head featuring two ring-shaped optics arranged vertically. In lieu of hands, its forearms were large gun attachments, the right being a large machinegun, while the left was a rocket launcher. "Oh my gosh! Is that a Model 34-A YMIR Battle Mech?" the weapon-crazy girl fangasmed with stars in her eyes, its footsteps shaking the ground as it stepped out of the police van and began to lumber forward.

"The cops were running around with _that _kind of hardware?" Yang gawped as the hulking mech stepped into the fray, now happy she didn't start any fights in the _good _part of town.

"ATTENTION WHITE FANG FAUNUS." Said the YMIR in a deep bellowing monotone.

"That's discriminatory!" Blake growled since there was no _visible _indicator that Jack was part of the White Fang. She was about to leap down and stab her sword through something important, but Yang pulled her back behind an overturned car with the rest of Team RWBY.

"CEASE ALL HOSTILITIES. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY." The YMIR demanded as Dark Jack continued to tear apart the woefully inept LOKI combat androids. "TEN. NINE. EIGHT."

Before the seven-count could be voiced, its right arm began belching out machinegun rounds with a loud **_*BLAAAAAAAAT!*_**, the transformed Faunus looking over his shoulder before bounding off, the car that got hit perforated like Swiss cheese. As Dark Jack continued to run in a wide circle, the YMIR continued to turn on its waist, the rounds pulping not only buildings, but LOKI mechs as well, the whole of Team RWBY scrambling onto the nearby rooftops as the car they were hiding behind was also mulched.

"Hey! Watch where you're firing!" Yang growled as she shook a fist at the hulking robot, which suddenly turned its attention to them and fired a rocket.

"Yang you dummy!" Ruby screeched as the projectile screamed towards them, a blackened body interposing itself between them and taking the blow, smoke rolling off its form as it tumbled to the ground.

"Jack!" Weiss shouted, realizing he'd thrown himself in the way.

**"Don't you dare****… touch****… my friends****…!"** the transformed Faunus growled as the shadows peeled away from his face, revealing his _own _snarling fangs as he glared at the large mech.

"TARGET ACQUIRED."

A rocket fired at the transformed Faunus, the now in-control Jack effortlessly lunged away from the explosion before running towards the YMIR. Its left arm cooling down, it raised its right launched a deluge of hot lead, streaks of Yellow Dust screaming through the air as the ground the bullets struck violently exploded in a line. Jack however, zig-zagged under and over the line of bullets screaming towards him, closing the distance before raking at its chest with his claws, a loud **_*SCREEEEEEECH* _**sounding through the air as his claws scraped at reinforced armor. The YMIR's body spinning rapidly at the waist, one of its large gun-arms struck Jack in the ribs and sent him flying away, only for a swing of his tail to re-orient himself, claws scraping across the ground, the YMIR's attention now focused solely on him as sparks danced out the claw marks raked across its chestplate.

Another volley of rockets fired from the YMIR's left arm, Jack began zipping through the square in irregular patterns, his now-silver hair trailing behind him like a lightning bolt as his Shundo carried him through the evening air. The YMIR's targeting software slowly getting a bead on the Faunus threat, before it could fire a sure-hit rocket, Jack disappeared completely from its scanners, its limited range of articulation preventing it from looking directly upward. The Faunus' right leg raised in a falling heel kick, Jack took the move a step further as he began spinning like a saw blade, the claws on his feet, his tail, and his hardening mane of hair creating a monochrome-colored buzzsaw.

"TARGET AC-"

Before the massive combat android could even _finish _its statement, the falling buzzsaw kick sheared it into two irregularly-halved pieces. Sparks jumping between severed wires as Jack's heel came to a stop in a crater in the ground, the two halves began to topple over like falling trees, mini-geysers of hydraulic fluid gushing into the air before splattering onto the ground. From within, the YMIR's AI had a spazzing split-in-half view of the world as its diodes began to shut down one by one from cascading power failures, swatches of blackness overcoming it until its optics died completely.

"That… was… AWESOME!" Ruby squealed as she jumped down from the roof, running towards Jack with wide arms.

**"STAY BACK!"** Jack growled holding out a hand to stop her, the girl's heels screeching across the ground as the Faunus began to tremble, shadows beginning to overtake his face. **"Stay away from me****… I'm slipping away****…!" **he said as he grasped his face with both hands, the reds of his eyes giving away to white between clasped fingers as the glowing tattoos across his body brightened against the shadows wreathing him.

"Jack, talk to me! Let me help you!" the red-head pleaded as the others scrambled toward them.

**"No****… There isn't anything****… you can do****…" **he growled as he raked his hands down his face, the scars that would've formed erased as the swirling tattoos around his face glowed and the flesh knit itself shut.

"I don't believe that! There has to be _something _we can do to help you!" the girl pleaded.

**"THERE'S _NOT_!" **Jack raged, a burst of darkened crimson Aura flinging the girl off her feet. **"You want to help****… Stay the hell out of my way!"** he growled as his eyes clamped shut, the shadows overtaking his face before the circular white eyes and jagged smile of his feral transformation returned, the transformed Faunus letting out a loud **_*GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH* _**as he threw his head back, the air itself shaking.

"Jack…?" Ruby asked worriedly as she stepped forward. The transformed Faunus' hand twitching, Weiss shot forward on a line of Glyphs and interposed herself between them, her rapier blocking a claw swipe that might've ripped the girl in half had she not been there. The heiress sent flying into Ruby, the two tumbling backwards in a tangle of limbs, Yang and Blake stooed in front of them and readied their weapons.

"I don't think he can hear us anymore," Blake said worriedly as Dark Jack observed the four of them, circular eyes expressionless as his arms hung limply at his sides, tail lazily swishing behind him. The next moment he propped himself up on his left arm, perpendicular to the ground, as he began to spin. His tail lashing out, a black-colored crescent of wind jumped off of his tail and sheared the air, the whole of RWBY throwing themselves to the ground as the powerful crescent blade tore through the air and destroyed everything behind him.

Whatever the buildings used to be, whatever history they may've had, now gave way to the new name they would have after this.

**Vacant Lot**

Team RWBY looking up saw Dark Jack beginning to walk away towards the north side of town, completely ignoring him as his steps transitioned from a walk into a jog. Before he could break out into a full-blown sprint, a line of jagged ice spikes formed a wall cutting off his path, the transformed Faunus looking over his shoulder to see that the heiress was the cause, her Myrtenaster stabbed into the ground.

"Oh no you don't!" Weiss said running towards him. "I already lost you once! I'M NOT LETTING YOU RUN OFF ON YOUR OWN AGAIN!" she said thrusting her rapier at him. Not something that'd kill, just something that'd slow them down until they could contain him and get him medical treatment.

**"Grrrr!"** Dark Jack growled as his hand snapped up and caught the blade, halting the lighter girl's momentum completely. The heiress jumping up and bracing her feet against the transformed Faunus' hand, Dark Jack regarded her as she struggled. He then turned the blade skyward, the heiress now hanging upside down from her own sword, an armored thumb pressing up against the blade until a press snapped it in two, dropping the heiress onto her back with a squeak.

_"Owch!" _she cried demurely, looking at her ruined blade before staring up at the transformed Faunus who regarded her with a tilt of his head before suddenly rearing his right arm back. The heiress flinching as memories of their last fight jumped to the forefront of her mind, a hot wind causing her hair to billow heralded the arrival of her blond teammate to her side, right arm cocked back before black and yellow collided in a deafening **_*BOOOOM* _**that shook the air.

"C'mon Jack! Snap out of it!" Yang shouted as the two continued to rain blows against one another, fist meeting fist as the two fired on all cylinders, chips of Dark Jack's armor and droplets of the blond's blood scattering into the air around them as they struggled. The deadlock of fists came to an end when Dark Jack caught her left fist in his armored grip, the blond interlocking fingers with his other hand, the two struggling against one another. "Jack… Wake up dammit!" the blond swore as she pushed against him, only for the traction of her boots to give way to Dark Jack's clawed feet as he strode forward. "Please… I don't want to fight you!"

**"GRAAAAH!"** Dark Jack roared as he lunged forward, teeth aimed at her throat before a black sickle-like weapon flew through the air and wrapped itself around the transformed Faunus' left horn, a strong pull from Ruby and Blake diverting the Faunus' lunge to the side, fanged maw clamping down onto the blond's mane of hair before a Glyph appeared at both their feet and forced the two apart.

"I don't think talking's going to work anymore," Blake said as her weapon slid free from the Faunus' horn.

"Dammit… Why did things have to turn out this way?" Yang asked as she ignored the golden lochs of hair tangled in Dark Jack's fangs, the status of her teammate himself a much more pressing concern.

"We had no way of knowing something like this would happen," Weiss said as she took out her Scroll and dialed in her four-digit code. Moments later, a gunmetal-colored streak sailed through the air, Dark Jack regarding it as it descended into the town square. Said streak was the heiress' own rocket-propelled locker, the door opening revealing a neatly-organized shelf of Dust Vials and spare parts for the Myrtenaster, which the heiress swiftly dove into to retrieve a spare blade for her weapon. Before she could affix it to her weapon however, her leader full-body tackled her with a cry of- "LOOK OUT!" -moments before a golden beam suddenly struck the inside of the locker. An inch-wide hole punched through the back, a prismatic cloud of dust spilled out of the confines of the locker before it suddenly detonated, a cloud of fire, ice, lightning, and miscellaneous other elements dancing through the cloud. "What the hell was that?!" the heiress squawked upon her locker's destruction.

"Jack's firing his laser!" Yang pointed out as the transformed Faunus gathered golden energy into his maw before shooting it off into a beam, the girls scrambling as Dark Jack continued to launch beams out of his face after a brief cooldown. The four of them chased behind another overturned car as Dark Jack's beam attack caused pockets of asphalt to violently detonate, their cover was violently assailed, the frame of the car trembling before tires began to blow out. The moment the four burst and dropped to the ground, the assault came to an end, Team RWBY huddling for several seconds before Ruby unfolded her Crescent Rose and peeked around the corner with the polished side of her blade. Looking up through what remained of the windows, the girl let out a whimpering cry as she saw Dark Jack's tail disappear around the corner of a building.

"Well…" the blond of the team deadpanned as she removed her blood-soaked fingerless gloves to see the lacerations running across her knuckles. "_That _could've gone better," she sighed as she reached into her jacket and pulled out a roll of gauze, wrapping the wounds with a practiced hand.

"No _duh_," the heiress snarked. "The town square's completely ruined, and our teammate's run off to who_ knows _where."

"You aren't even _from _Vale, so I don't see what you have to complain about," Blake sighed as she got to her feet and dusted herself off.

"So what do we do now?" Yang asked. "We're standing in the middle of ground zero and our fifth just ran off."

"Normally, we'd need a tracker for something like this, but since Jack _is _the missing person and none of us are experienced with tracking in an urban environment, we'll have to do something else," Weiss stated as she replaced her Myrtenaster's blade. "It might be a good idea to call in the cavalry for backup."

"So… we just _wait_?!" Ruby gawped. "No! That's no good! We can't just sit around and do nothing!"

"And what _would _you have us do? Run around like chickens with our heads cut off?" she asked as she rested her fists on her hips. "Even if by some miracle we _did _find Jack, if we're dead-tired by the time that happens, we won't be any good to anyone."

"I… I guess you're right on that," Ruby said slumping down atop a piece of debris. _*Sigh* _"To the cavalry," she said tiredly. Just because Jack wasn't _dead _per-se, doesn't mean she didn't feel like she'd just _lost _him. And on her first mission no less.

Then, suddenly, as if answering their prayers, the sound of roaring engines sounded from the distance. Turning their gaze to the east, they saw a black dot steadily growing larger as it flew through cloudy skies. The unmistakable silhouette of a Pelican dropship soon came into view, followed by spotlights which panned across the ruined ground before settling on them. The ship descending to ground level, the ship spun around for a no-landing extraction, the Blood Tray opening up for them.

"Cheers, loves! The cavalry's here!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby cheered as soon as the door closed behind them and the airship took off.

"Hello, Ms. Rose," Glynda said adjusting her glasses. "I'm glad you and your team are unharmed. Relatively speaking," she amended taking in the rips in her clothes.

"Yeah… but I can't say that for _all _of us…" the young leader sighed.

"Where _is _Mr. Braxton by the way? I don't see him here," Professor Port said looking around. "Is he chasing the monster that appeared in town?" he wondered, the m-word causing Yang to flinch.

"About that…"

**One brief, but detailed, explanation later…**

"Fascinating. To think that something of the Pulsian faith could come to be an actually-occurring phenomena in the real world," Dr. Oobleck hummed as he stroked his chin. "This potentially gives credence to _all _of their mythos. Just think of the ramifications to modern society if the legendary power of the fal'Cie could be _harnessed_!"

"NO!" Weiss and Yang shouted at the man, immediately shooting that idea down.

"And you're saying the Crimson Orb… _ate _Jack?" Glynda asked worriedly.

"More like a bunch of _dead chicks _dragged him in, but yes, that's the gist of what happened," Blake stated. "We're lucky Jack's willpower held out for as long as it did. Between the power of the Crimson Orb and Jack's own abilities, he very well could've killed us."

"So then _Dark Jack's _power is an amalgamation between that of multiple parties condensed into a single mortal form," Professor Port hummed. "I've dealt with a possession or two back in my day, but I'm not sure that salt, crucifixes, or holy water will be able to help us here."

"Ozpin said we'd have to try and _Resolve _what was keeping the Ruby of Grief in our world. Wouldn't it make sense if we just wait it out?" Yang asked. "If it's a matter of business left unfinished, wouldn't he return to normal once that's done."

"If we're dealing with malignant spirits, the fulfillment of those wishes could cause some blowback to the Hunter Union," Glynda argued. "Did Jack _mention _anything before he was taken?"

"No. All we know for certain is that Rubies of Grief appear when someone dies or is killed _suddenly_," Ruby stated. "Maybe someone got killed by someone else, and they want justice?"

"But remember, there were _multiple _bodies rising out of that Orb. Even if it's strictly on a one-on-one basis, the bodies could still pile up really quickly," Blake stated with crossed arms. What had happened back there was like something out of a horror movie. And not a _bad _horror movie, but the kind that had you jumping at shadows for three days straight. "And not all of them might be guilty. Some of those spirits could merely be holding grudges against those that're innocent of any wrongdoing."

"So… What, we have to pick-and-chose who we let Jack eighty-six?" Yang asked.

"If it comes to that," Professor Port stated with crossed arms. "Huntsmen _do _have the authority to take lives in the defense of another person, but pure vigilantism without any sort of basis is heavily frowned upon."

"Yeah, well, maybe Ozpin should've sent a _grownup _if that was going to be the case," Yang huffed. "What, was there _no-one _in the staff that couldn't be bothered to fix this?" she bit out angrily.

"Yang!" Weiss squawked at the blond's back-sassing.

"What? It's _true _isn't it?" the blond asked in turn. "I'm all for missions as much as the next girl, but I'm starting to think we're out of our depth here. Dead chicks possessing our friends, turning them into… _creatures _and making them kill people to settle old grudges? This is exactly the kind of thing a twisted judicial system would use to put him in a chair on trumped-up charges just because _someone _in management fucked up!"

"Yang has a point," Blake said from her seat. "Whenever a Faunus is exonerated of wrongdoings postmortem, the White Fang has _always _swelled in number because of faults in the law system. We need to tread carefully on this. Jack represents the descendant of heroes from the last war, and if he gets the axe… things could get _very _bad. Every major wrongdoing has always given them ammo to use in recruitment drives, and corruption in the system is something that gets the blood boiling in a very _bad _way."

"Sad, but true," Dr. Oobleck stated as he zipped around the cabin. "Lena! Anything on the police scanner!" he shouted into the cockpit.

"Not yet… Not yet… Oh! Wait! I think we've got something!" the pilot replied. "We've got creature-sightings in the Commercial District. Looks like our lost boy's moving north to the edge of town next to Forever Fall."

"What could be there?" Ruby wondered. "Don't people commonly stay _away _from the edge of large cities?"

"If they're trying to avoid the seasonal swell in Grimm numbers, that's true. However, rent in those areas is cheap, or buildings are otherwise left completely abandoned, so it could easily be as a den for criminal elements," the mustachioed professor stated.

"How soon can we get there?" Ruby asked.

"I can get us there in five minutes if I hit the afterburner," the pilot replied. "I tell ya what though. To cover that much ground in such a small amount of time, our lost boy must be really _bookin'._"

"Well, historically, quadrupeds _have _outmoded bipeds in terms of mobility," Dr. Oobleck stated. "Some Faunus are able to modulate their skeletal structure to facilitate greater modality, though this has given Humans plenty of reason to consider Faunus as something _less _than Human."

"With all that shadow wrapping around him and those glowing tattoos, I don't think anyone will be able to recognize him," Yang stated with crossed arms. "People are idiots, so they'll probably think he's some kind of maskless-Grimm species."

"Is your sentiment on people being idiots based on past experience, or just life in general?" Weiss asked.

"_Hey Ruby, hold my beer, I'mma jump that rock!" _Ruby imitated in Yang's tone.

"That was one time, and I totally _made_ that jump!"

"No, you and Qrow were so blitzed you drove straight into the lake and he started hitting on another _dude_. Dad didn't let you out of his sight for a _month_! And that wheel-jack didn't leave Bumblebee for _two_."

"_My babyyyyyyy…" _Yang whimpered in fetal position at the memory, the silence of her little spot in the garage like the crying of her firstborn child denied its mother's love.

"Maybe we should wind things down a bit," Weiss suggested. None of them would be able to fight properly if they didn't have their wits about them.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright folks, I've got visual confirmation on the IR," Lena said from the pilot's seat five minutes later. "And um… Not sure if this is normal or not, but his core temperature's really low. Does normal even _apply _in this situation?"

"A lowered body temperature… For a Faunus, who normally has a warmer base body temperature than a Human, this is especially alarming. Could the Crimson Orb have caused such a radical shift to his anatomy?" Dr. Oobleck postulated.

"I think it's safe to say we're in uncharted territory here," Glynda stated. "And you're _sure _he grew horns and a tail?"

"Where's Jack going?" Weiss asked.

"It looks like he's entering an old warehouse."

"Any identifying markings we could use to determine why Jack's going there?" Glynda asked.

"Well… There's lots of graffiti on it and some curse words. OH! There's a big stencil-painted fist on the door within a circle."

'_The Circle of Man? Could it really be that simple, that they've been involved in the string of murders being covered up?' _Glynda asked. The only reason the Vale Council _allowed _this sort of thing to be covered up, or "pushed back" as they insisted on calling it, was so that tourism wouldn't get hurt in the months leading up to the Vytal Festival, and/or the police being directed towards stopping "more important" crimes.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Ruby wondered aloud.

"Ruby… I'd like for you and the others to stay behind. Port and I will go down first, and call in case we need backup," Glynda said as she went to the back and began lowering the hatch. Even though the skies had begun to clear up, the sun had already begun to set, the sky darkening.

"Man, where does the time go?" Yang asked as Glynda and Port leapt out of the Blood Tray, descending to the ground before running toward the warehouse that was being targeted. Just like Lena had said, the warehouse their target was heading was covered in graffiti, as well as a large Circle of Man symbol painted on the front. What she failed to mention was that there was a large hole punched through doors normally meant to hold back Grimm for _some _period of time, and that there were screams echoing out from within.

"Port, watch my back, and don't fire unless provoked," the woman ordered as she got out her riding crop.

"Right-o," the man replied as he followed behind the woman. Sidling across the door before peaking in, through the darkness she saw numerous silhouettes moving about, yanking her head from the opening as stray gunshots flew out the opening. "What do you see?"

"Look for yourself," Glynda replied, the portly professor crawling beneath the hole before looking in from the other side.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**A few minutes before…**

Like the exterior, the inside of the warehouse clearly looked dilapidated. There were metal drum barrels scattered around, old machinery, and piles of aged building material scattered about. The only thing that looked new about it was the "dude cave" toward the back with a few haphazardly-thrown rugs strewn about, ratty couches, a cooler full of beer, and an entertainment system hooked up to an old generator against the back wall. At the moment there were a half-dozen Human males lounging about, most nearing or beyond high school graduation age.

Most would write it off as a "dude lodge" in the back of an abandoned warehouse that no-one cared about. At least as long as they didn't pay attention to the shipping container in the back corner, nor listen real carefully for the occasional whimper from within.

"Fuckin' A! What a haul!" a brown-haired man in his late teens said as he hammered away at his Gamesphere controller. He, like the rest of his crew, were wearing faded jeans, sneakers of various colors, and white hoodies with raised fists proudly emblazoned within an enclosing circle.

"And you're sure nobody will miss them?" one of the younger of the group, a fifteen year-old with blond hair, asked as he looked warily at the shipping container of to the side.

"Those animals in the ghettos can raise all the fuss they want, but as long as the police don't care, we're golden," a third man with red hair, looking around eighteen, stated as he drank a bottle of hooch.

"Yeah, everyone has their price after all," a black-haired man, twenty-two years of age, chuckled as he fanned himself with a handful of Lien bills.

"That they do," a nineteen-year-old with blue hair said as he polished a pair of blue bracelets.

"A couple more hauls like this and we'll get to join the _big _leagues," a rather snake-like teen with short green hair said as he ran a whetstone along a sword.

"So how long we gotta hold the merch?" the brown-haired teen asked.

"My buddy at the harbor will smuggle this onto the next boat to Atlas. After the goods are sold, we'll get our cut, and we can live the high life before we get to the _good _stuff," the blue-haired teen chuckled.

_***CRASH***_

"What the hell!?" the red-haired gawped as he dropped his bottle, the sound of the door being punched open drawing all their attention to the front of the warehouse.

**"Grrrrrrrr!" **the new entity growled, spaded tail swishing angrily behind him.

"What the heck is that thing?!" the green-haired teen gawped.

"I dunno. Think it's some kinda maskless-Grimm species?" the blond-haired teen questioned.

Elsewhere, a mustachioed man sneezed.

"Whatever it is, it just punched a hole through our door!" the brown-haired teen growled angrily as he fished four throwing knives with Red Dust crystals on the tips of the blades from his pocket.

**Cue Guilty Gear Xrd OST: -SIGN- Big Blast Sonic**

His arms blurring into motion, the four knives ignited in mid-air and streaked at their target like comets, the projectiles deviating from their flight path as they swirled around the transformed Faunus at all angles, before all-at-once converging upon their target. The transformed Faunus leaping into the air, each of his clawed appendages snatched a knife from the air before he landed on the ground, balancing on his tail before he dropped the knives to the ground and crushed them underfoot.

"I'm so cool, I'm _freezing_!" the blue-haired teen shouted as he ran forward, his bracelets unfolded into Dual-Ranged Shot Gauntlets. The Collapsible-Frame technology completing the transformation in mere moments, the teen fired off a staccato of jabs that sent dozens of freezing Cyan Dust rounds screaming through the air. Impacting the transformed Faunu's feet and working their way up his body, even with his arms crossed, Dark Jack was soon covered head-to-toe in a thick block of ice, a veritable iceberg now resting in the middle of their warehouse. "And _that's _how _I _roll!"

The blue-haired teen's whooping for victory came to a screeching halt when the iceberg began to rumble. Moments later, cracks beginning to form across its translucent surface before it suddenly exploded in a burst of crimson Aura. The transformed Faunus shook his body like a wet animal, sending leftover fragments of ice dancing across the ground before he rose to his hind legs, slowly walking forward.

"HRRRRAH!" the blue-haired teen roared as he jumped at Dark Jack and threw his arm forward in a right jab straight at his mug.

_***Click***_

"Huh?"

_***Click*Click***_

"Awww… crapbaskets," the blue-haired teen muttered upon realizing he'd spent all his ammo in that first barrage and forgotten to reload. A warbling laugh left Dark Jack's maw as he stepped forward with his left foot drew an armored fist back, the blue-haired teen raising his arms to block as the fist flew forward. Metal, flesh, and bone buckled as the armored fist breached his guard like an armor-piercing slug, the teen's life flashing before his eyes as the powerful black fist plowed into his face moments later, teeth, blood, and other forms of viscera -_including but not limited to whole eyeballs_\- splattering through the air as his face was completely caved in.

He was dead before he even hit the ground.

_***SPLAT***_

"You sonofabitch!" the black-haired man growled as he grabbed a large sledgehammer from beside his seat and lunged at Dark Jack with a powerful overhead swing, only for the transformed Faunus to grab the shaft just beneath the head of the hammer. The man grunted and growled as he tried to extricate his weapon from the transformed Faunus' grip, so-focused was he on this one task that he neglected to protect his _other _weapon, a claw-toed punt kick causing him to squeal like a stuck pig.

Letting go of one weapon to clutch at the other, before he could realize the mistake he'd made, Dark Jack had already reared the ten-pound implement behind him in an overhead two-handed swing. Looking up into the business end of his sledgehammer, the blood of the many Faunus the implement had been used upon before was the last thing the man saw as the hammer came down. _Literally_.

_***KRNCH-SPLAT***_

Gray matter and bone fragments splattered all over the warehouse floor, by the time rigor mortis finally set in, the man would still be clutching at the superfluous new asshole given to him moments before his grisly demise, having lived as he died; with his hands clutching his balls.

"Stay back, you can't handle this thing in a straight-up fight," the brown-haired man told the blond as he drew another quartet of knives from his pocket, these tipped with Yellow Dust crystals, the red-haired man at his side drawing a fire axe wrapped with barbed wire, while the green-haired teen whipped out his sword, the flourish separating the long blade into many smaller blades on a flexible cord. "Alright guys, we fight smarter, not harder. But to do that, we'll have to be patient."

"No waiting! This thing made my friends bleed, so I'll make _him _bleed!" the red-haired teen growled as he pulled his hood completely over his head, eyes glaring angrily out the eye-holes as he ran at the beast that had murdered two of his friends right in front of him. The brown-haired teen growling angrily, he began throwing knives past his axe-wielding friend's flanks, the ground at the transformed Faunus' sides exploding and limiting his movement as the axe-wielding teen closed the distance.

Axe blade coming down in an overhead strike, Dark Jack crossed his arms above his head, sparks dancing as the barbed wire axe scraped against his scaled arm armor. The red-haired teen's Aura flared and he put more pressure on his weapon, the green-haired Circle member flanking Dark Jack's side and sending out a sword thrust, his sword extending several times its length as it aimed for his neck. Dark Jack quickly inverted his hands and yanked the axe downward as he spun to the left, the tip of the snake sword cutting part of the barbed wire, Dark Jack's armored hand snagging one end and twisting the rest free before he snapped it out at the red-haired teen like a whip.

_***SPLURT* **_"GAAAAH!" the red-head cried as the barbed wire whip scraped through his eye.

As the red-haired teen clutched at his face, ocular fluid mixed with blood spilling down his cheek, Dark Jack back-flipped away as exploding knives went off at his feet, forcing him to backpedal and bounce off his tail repeatedly as the ground was pock-marked by explosions. The green-haired teen rushing between the explosions, sent out his sword in a flurry of thrusts, the blade lengthening and contracting at an impossibly-fast rate as the snake-sword zipped through the air. Dark Jack deflected each strike away from his face with the armor on his arms, scratches and gouges beginning to form on the phantasmal material as the Sonic Sword Rain continued in earnest.

The brown-haired teen throwing a Yellow Dust knife at his feet, stepped on it and detonated it, the explosion sending him sailing high into the air above the transformed Faunus. Unzipping his white Circle hoodie revealed combat webbing with Dust-tipped knives lining his entire body, and in one fell swoop he undid the Velcro holding two columns of knives free before drawing a combat knife from his sleeve and striking the free-falling blades with a reverse-handed grip. Streaks of silver shooting downward like rain, Dark Jack was powerless to stop the barrage of fire, ice, and electric-powered Dust knives that bodily struck him from above, the brown-haired teen lending on the opposite side and continuing to throw knives of varying Dust types, he and the green-haired teen continuing to attack the silhouette within the mist before jumping back and catching their breaths.

"You think we got him?" the green-haired teen asked as he drew back the blades into a full sword.

"I wouldn't count on it," the brown-haired teen said as the smoke began to clear, revealing that the transformed Faunus had formed his tail and hair into a double-helix around himself, creating a crude shield.

"Shit, I should've known," the green-haired teen huffed as he flourished his sword, the red-haired teen hobbling towards them. The smell of burning flesh wafting through the air, they saw that the red-head had seared his wounded face shut with flames spilling from his fingertips. "Yeeesh," the green-haired teen flinched at the acrid smell. "Your face looks like an overcooked steak."

"And yours looks like a _butt_," the red-head sneered back.

"Classy," the green-haired teen replied with a deadpan stare.

"Doesn't matter. I'll peel _that _thing's face off and wear it like a hockey mask!" the red-head said with manic glee as he hefted his fire axe, lines of fire lancing up the shaft before the axe blade lit up with flames.

"Cut the chatter you two! It's coming!" the brunette said as the transformed Faunus lunged towards them.

The red-head running forward, with a sweep of his hand a wave of fire spilled out of splayed fingers and carpeted the ground, the transformed Faunus' clothes beginning to burn while the red-head ran through the fire with impunity. Dark Jack's armored limbs however suffered superficial damage and he continued on, right arm drawn back as he launched a claw-strike at the red-head, sparks dancing through the air as the two attacks collided, a loud _***SCREECH***_ sounding through the air. The red-head's cheeks puffing up, he belched up an acrid ball of fire point-blank, overwhelming his opponent for several seconds before a black-armored hand burst from the fire and clamped itself over his mouth. The red-head let out a muffled scream as the fire lingered inside his mouth, the acrid smell of smoke burning his sinuses.

Before Dark Jack could knock his lights out, the green-haired teen ran perpendicularly to the two and jumped overhead, his snake sword snaring the wrist holding his compatriot before using the whole of his bodyweight to throw the transformed Faunus away, the red-haired teen hacking up smoke and embers as his orifice was freed. Dark Jack grabbing the snake-sword binding his wrist, the green-haired teen's sneakers scraped against the floor before he was lifted away and was spun round and round and round. The bladed line let go, the green-haired teen was sent flying through a column of scrapped oil drums with a loud _***CRASH* **_as they tumbled to the ground, the brunette of the group rushing forward and throwing Blue Dust knives at the flame-carpeted ground, kicking up a cloud of steam as the two elements collided.

"Light him up!" the brunette shouted as he threw a cluster of Blue Dust knives into the air around their opponent, the red-haired teen's stomach distending as he sucked in air before belching out countless fireballs that collided with the mid-air knives, the cloud of steam becoming scalding until the warehouse began to feel like a sauna.

"You think _that _got him?" the red-haired teen asked as he coughed up smoke.

"For the love of god, quit asking that question!" the green-haired teen cried as he kicked a drum away from himself, the transformed Faunus leaping out of the steam cloud moments later. "What does it take to _kill _this fucking thing?!" he demanded angrily as he snapped his snake-sword across the ground.

"What's it even here for?" the red-haired teen asked as he watched the monster's eyes lock onto the shipping crate at the back of the warehouse. "It's after the merchandise!"

"What?! How'd it find us!?" the green-haired teen cried.

"Doesn't matter. If things get any louder, people might ask questions, and as much as I hate to admit it, not _everyone _feels the same way about those… _things _as we do," the brunette said as he sneered contemptuously at the container.

"Think we should cram this _thing _in a crate too?" the red-haired teen asked.

"That thing killed two of our friends. It wouldn't be worth it," the green-haired teen sneered as he slotted a teal-colored Dust Crystal into the hilt of his sword, the blade glowing the same color before he whipped his weapon out and smacked a crescent blade of wind through the air.

Dark Jack tore his eyes away from the shipping container in the corner and lashed out with a right-legged back-kick, right hand supporting himself over the ground as he pivoted into a left-legged kick with double the force. The dance-like kick sent an even _larger _blade of black-colored wind through the air, the green-haired teen blocking with his sword as well as he could before he was thrown against the wall. The transformed Faunus drew back his leg to send another air-rending kick at his stunned opponent, but the brunette drew one of his rare Purple Dust knives and threw it at the offending limb, which slammed back down into the ground when an enormous gravitational force pulled it down, the limb creaking as it almost snapped at the knee.

Angrily wrenching the blade from the armor in his leg, Dark Jack's ears twitched as the smoky scent of his red-haired opponent closed in on him from behind. The transformed Faunus merely raised his tail and slapped the teen into the ground before turning his eyes back to the green-haired teen who was presently discombobulated, only to growl irritatingly as he raised his armored arm and guarded his face from a cluster of non-Dust knives that buffeted his form. As the knives spun in the air, they glowed with a dark gray Aura before re-orienting themselves and launching through the air like flown, the transformed Faunus somersaulting to the side lest his neck be sheared open.

"Dammit just die already!" the red-haired teen growled from his place on the ground as he drew his arm back and chucked the axe. The blade spinning end over end, Dark Jack leaned back and effortlessly caught the axe before returning it to-sender, the spiked end of the fireman's axe biting into the teen's right shoulder with a loud _***SQUELCH***_. "Sonofabitch!" the red-haired teen cried as he struggled to pull the axe free, the pointed end biting into bone.

Dark Jack was about to turn his attention back to the brunette who was fishing more knives from his hoodie, but the green-haired teen had leapt at him from above before extending his snake blade downward, forcing the transformed Faunus to dodge. The Human dropping to the ground stabbed his sword downward, the ground rumbling before the blade snaked up and struck at the Faunus from below, forcing him to backpedal as the blade descended and rose forward from its last position. At the fourth stab from below, Dark Jack's armored hand snatched the blade before twisting it around his forearm and yanking back, hard, ripping the blade handle from the green-haired teen's hand and upturning the floor as he drew back the segmented blade, ripping the handle free before twirling the snake-blade around like a chain.

Seeing the brunette was reaching around his sides to grab the knives on his back, Dark Jack ran at the green-haired teen, twirling his chain-blade around with a _***BREEEEEEN* **_as it spun faster and faster and _faster _like a sawblade. The green-haired teen looking along in worry, slipped under the Faunus' legs at the last moment and scrambled toward the remains of his snake-sword, clicking a button on the handle and drawing the last few segments of the blade together making a crude knife. Rounding on his opponent with the sharpened edge, his arm was rapidly scratched up from wrist to elbow until suddenly his Aura gave out, his arm butchered like sliced ham from elbow to shoulder.

Crying out as he clutched at his limb, Dark Jack got behind him and spun the snake-blade around his neck like a length of garrote wire. Spinning until they were back-to-back, Dark Jack pulled the wire drawing the Human's back to his own before leaning forward, the greenette's feet lifted from the ground as he was strangled by the blade around his neck. The blade biting into fingers and neck-flesh, the transformed Faunus drew his arms out to the sides, causing a geyser of blood to wash over him as he green-haired teen was handily decapitated.

However that victory was short-lived as another pair of Purple Dust knives stabbed into the armor at his feet, the ground cratering as the gravity on the limbs increased several-fold. Cyan Dust knives sailing through the air moments later caused ice to creep up most of his body, leaving only his head and chest exposed.

"I got him with my strongest Dust Knives! Hit him while he's pinned!" the brunette shouted.

"Finally!" the red-haired axe-wielder grinned, having wrenched the weapon free moments ago. The axe blade scraping against the ground as he held it in his good hand, getting a reasonable clip, he then ran at his pinned opponent and aimed a powerful axe-hack toward the top of his head between his horns.

_***THUNK***_

"What?!" he yelped as the blade stopped dead against his scalp. Little did he know was that the transformed Faunus' hair, which was made of keratin making it like armor, was even more powerful in this darkened state. And that wasn't even counting the Aura he'd used to stop the blow itself.

A blackened arm bursting through the ice grabbed the red-head by the front of his shirt moments later before bringing him forward for a devastating head-butt that discombobulated him. The ice began to crack, another burst of crimson Aura making it explode away from Dark Jack's body as he ran over to the side of the warehouse and began chucking random pieces of wood and metal at the brown-haired teen, forcing him into cover as the Aura-powered projectiles took out chunks of the floor and walls around his cover.

"Get to cover! He's going for something heavy!" the brunette-shouted as the transformed Faunus whipped his tail at a support beam, taking out two big chunks of it before he ripped it free, part of the roof buckling before he lobbed it through the air at the red-head.

"Don't worry, I got this!" the red-head said as he took in air. "FLAME ARTE: SCARLET GRUDGE!"he shouted as he let loose a white-hot cone of fire through the air that singed the air itself.

"Don't attack like that! Get out of the way!" he brunette ordered as the steel girder began to melt as it flew through the flames. Moments later it breached the cone of fire in front of it, molten metal spattering all over the red-head's body and stripping away flesh from bone, a blood-curdling cry leaving his lips before a large globule of molten metal encompassed his head, scream muffled as he toppled over, the metal slowly hardening in the likeness of a screaming skull as his flailing came to a stop.

"Dammit!" the brunette swore as another prospective Circle member went down. Brandishing his knives between his fingers, he vaulted over his cover and sent a scattering of knives at his target. Those that flew directly at him, Dark Jack slashed out of the air with his claws, while those that changed direction mid-air were batted aside by his tail and banner-like hair. The brunette reaching into his combat webbing for another knife, patted at his chest before realizing, much to his dismay, that his Dust-tipped knives and even the non-Dust knives had all been exhausted.

"Shit!" he cursed as he drew a larger combat knife out of his sleeve. The transformed Faunus zig-zagging towards him, silver hair trailing behind him in a lightning bolt shape, the brown-haired teen flipped his knife into a traditional grip and quickly focused both his bodily and spiritual energies. "Sonic Thrust!" he shouted, the self-hypnotic trigger-word causing his physical and spiritual energies to blend and then multiply exponentially, the sudden influx of energy forming an Arte that allowed his blade to break the sound barrier with a deafening _***BOOM* **_as the blade screamed toward the target's right eye.

_***SCREEEEEEE* **_the blade screeched as it scraped against Dark Jack's right horn, a flick of his neck sending the blade spinning away through the air before his left horn gored the teen through the hand. Another powerful twist of his neck and body sent the teen over his head in a parody of a hip check, his feet completely leaving the ground. Armored fists grabbing the teen by his combat webbing, the brown-haired Human was thrown into the air above the transformed Faunus, who back-flipped onto his hands before curling his arms and legs toward himself, coiling every muscle in his body before double-kicking the teen high into the air with the full length of his body.

"GAH!" the brunette cried as his back slammed against a beam running across the ceiling, the metal buckling as he was nearly folded in half. The momentum holding him in place for several seconds, the white hot pain exploding across his vision obscured Dark Jack galloping up the wall with clawed fingers and toes before bodily kicking off and meeting the teen as gravity began to take its hold.

Dark Jack grabbing the teen's arm, held it across his chest as he snapped out his tail with a loud _***BOOM***_ and began to spin, the transformed Faunus' grip on the opposing appendage sliding down the brunette's arm until it was at the wrist. The centrifugal momentum at its greatest point, he let go, sending the Human teen crashing into the warehouse floor with a deafening _***BOOOOOOM!***_. Blocks of concrete in rings began to leap from the ground in circular tiers, destroying most of the warehouse floor before they settled, the breaking-glass sound of _***KA-SHHHH* **_signifying the complete shattering of the brunette's Aura.

Blood bursting from the teen's mouth, every bone in his body ached from the force of the blow, his Aura being the only thing that kept him in a single Human-shaped piece and prevented him from turning into a greasy red smear on the ground. Even the smallest twitch of his finger sent lances of pain through every ache in his body, the edges of his vision darkening as he struggled to fill his lungs with air, only to feel the pins-and-needles of broken ribs jabbing at his lungs as he struggled for breath. Attempting to look down at his body, the vertebrae just below his skull creaked and crunched like saltines crushed underfoot, a napalm-like pain spreading through his body as the adrenaline died down, looking at his body to see several jagged lengths of rebar piercing his body from when he'd struck the floor.

'_Why… Why am I being punished like this?' _the brunette thought, too-tired to speak aloud. _'All my life I was told that if I punished these soulless creatures, I'd be rewarded in the end, so why… why has god forsaken me?' _he pleaded as he looked up, the world slowing to a crawl as his opponent descended towards him, right arm drawn back.

_**DEATH**_

That was the only word his mind could form as the world turned black, feeling the wind rushing past his face as the black-armored fist descended towards him, growing bigger and bigger like a falling meteor. As the meteoric punch fell, the black armor began to peel away revealing dark scar-marked complexion, the white-washed eyes giving way to baleful orbs of crimson that leered down on him derisively, silvery-white hair giving way to monochrome as the monster's true form was revealed to him.

_***BOOOOOOM!***_

**END OST**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

'_How could this happen?' _the blond-haired teen asked as he cowered behind a set of scrapped oil drums, staring into his Scroll with his eyes glued to the Aura-reading App as debris clattered all around him.

As the youngest of their merry little band, he was exempt from the fighting, instead being delegated to running the numbers and codifying the ledger that, if it fell into the _right _hands, would've gotten them shipped off to Impel Down on a one-way trip. This left him with only the ability to watch on as his friends fought, their mugshots dimming to gray before fading to black entirely, a sense of dread overcoming him as the scent of blood in the dusty air became more and more prominent.

The sounds of claws scraping on the ground drawing closer and closer, the splintering of wood and the crashing of electronics against the concrete floor signaled the tearing-up of their rec room, his hands clamping his mouth to quiet his breathing as the sound of claws tearing through leather upholstery met his ears. Moments later, the drums he was hiding behind were effortlessly thrown aside, the monstrous black beast towering over him, white portal-like eyes and jagged jack-o-lantern smile regarding him, a hot breath that smelled of blood washing over him.

"Please… Please don't kill me!" the blond pleaded as he dropped his Scroll. "I'm just the numbers guy! I didn't want to _hurt _any of those girls! The others… the others _made _me do it…"

Dark Jack leveled a glare at the whimpering teen, the corner of his mouth raising as he growled irritatingly at the pathetic Human specimen before him. When the acrid smell of urine met his nostrils and a darkened stain appeared down the teen's thighs, the transformed Faunus huffed and turned away, deciding to spare him. The moment his back was turned, the blond-haired teen's terrified face turned sinister as he rolled up his sleeve, an arm-mounted crossbow unfolding into view, loaded with a silver blade with a wickedly-sharp tip. The bowstring drawn back silently, with a flex of his hand, the knife screamed through the air at the base of the transformed Faunus' neck where his skull met the spine.

However, instead of crippling the murderous beast like the blond had hoped, the transformed Faunus angled his neck downward, the blade sailing harmlessly over his head to the other end of the warehouse. The warehouse grew deathly quiet after that, the sound of the missed blade clattering to the floor even more-strongly punctuated as Dark Jack stopped mid-step. Slowly turning his head over his shoulder, a low growl rumbled in his throat as his eyes narrowed at the blond-haired teen he'd deigned to spare moments before.

"Um… Whoops?" the blond said meekly as he set down the crossbow and raised his arms above his head. "You uh… You know what they say… It's easier to forgive than it is to hold a grudge… you know?" he asked with a light-hearted chuckle as though he _hadn't _just attempted to commit murder.

The blond's answer came when the transformed Faunus ripped a rather _unorthodox _blunt object free from its mooring, scraping the flesh and blood away before he began to bludgeon him to death with it.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Presently…**

"Good heavens, is Jack beating that poor lad to death with his own skull?" Port asked peeking through the hole as he witnessed Dark Jack beating a young blond's face into hamburger with what was unmistakably a very _fresh _Human skull.

"No, I believe the skull belongs to that body a few feet away," Glynda said pointing to a fresh corpse a few feet away, the head ripped off the shoulders from when the impromptu bludgeon was seized.

"Oh," the portly man replied. "I don't see why he's doing _that_. There's a perfectly-good sledgehammer a scant few meters away," he said before recoiling at the sight of the body holding its bloody second anus.

After nearly a dozen strikes, the blond's hair was completely red and his limbs all hung limply at his sides. With one final blow, Dark Jack struck the blond-haired teen so hard his head exploded into a shower of viscera, the skull-shaped skull implement firmly nestled within the sinewy grip of human effluence. The body dropped to the floor moments later, Dark Jack threw his head back and let out a deafening roar into the night sky.

It was at this moment that Glynda climbed through the hole and made her way forward, Port following slowly behind her as they maneuvered their way around the fresh corpses which gave the room a rather _homely _feel. In a deranged _homicidal _sort of way.

"Jack… Jack, can you hear me?" Glynda said cautiously stepping forward. "It's me, Pro… Glynda. It's me, Glynda," she reiterated. Being professionally _distant_ to him wouldn't help things in the slightest. More than anything, she needed to appeal to his humanity if she wanted to pierce through the murderous haze filling his vision. "Are you in there? Can you understand the words coming out of my mouth?"

In response, Dark Jack merely assumed a crouched position, neither attacking nor retreating. Instead he was merely keeping his distance, tail swishing angrily behind him, claws raking at the ground as he appraised the potential new adversaries.

"The lights are on, but nobody's home-No, no that's not it," Port corrected. "The lights are on, but it's like someone _else _is home."

"You said you've dealt with possessions before. How did _you _usually handle them?" the blond asked.

"Well, one time I had to use a _lot _of formaldehyde. The other time I doused them in holy water and read scripture for two hours. The time after that I-"

"Anything that we can do _now _with what we have on hand?"

"Hmmm… Nope. Not that I can recall."

"Perfect…" Glynda sighed, before trying to approach him again.

**"GRAWR!"** Dark Jack growled as his eyes landed on the weapon in her hand.

" . . . Right, this probably looks really bad," the woman said sliding her weapon back into her boot. "I'm going to come closer, is that alright?" she asked. Taking a tentative step forward, the transformed Faunus jumped into the air and spun in a corkscrew, his spade-like tail launching a crescent blade of air at the ground in front of her, shearing a line in the concrete.

"He appears to be drawing a line in the sand," Port said as the woman jumped back. It wasn't actually close enough to hit her, but she'd leapt back out of habit. "Splash damage" was one of the biggest killers of Hunters that let down their guard, after all. "And now it appears he's looking for something," he noted as the transformed Faunus' nose twitched, eyes narrowing and ears wiggling as he panned his head from left to right.

Circling around, the transformed Faunus eventually stopped in front of a storage container at the back of the building. There was a heavy lock and chain on it, but Dark Jack crushed the lock in his armored hand before ripping it free. Claws digging into the thick metal doors, throwing them wide, Glynda and Port's eyes widened at the contents of the shipping container.

Held within were over a dozen young women, all of them Faunus. Their ages ranged from the pre-teens to their early twenties, and their clothes were dirty and stained. Some of them had bruises on their faces, some had their clothes ripped, and others were clinging onto one another for support.

At the sight of the transformed Faunus before them, they scrambled to the back of the crate, pressing their backs against it out of fear. That fear soon turned to curiosity (mixed with fear) as they saw the mutilated white-garbed men strewn about behind him. The transformed Faunus backpedaling away from the door and jabbing an armored thumb over his shoulder to the door, the women regarded him warily, before one of them had the courage to get to her feet and approach him. Dark Jack simply looked up at her, simply regarding the woman before she looked over her shoulder and waved the others towards her.

One by one, the Faunus began getting to their feet and made their way out of the shipping container. Some of them drew the arms of another over their shoulders and helped one another out, each of them regarding the transformed Faunus before them, before walking past. They gave Glynda and Port narrowed eyes as they grabbed discarded weapons from the ground, the older women arming themselves and forming a circle around the younger members of their group. The last to walk out was a small Faunus girl barely past twelve years of age, and the ruined state of her dress caused Glynda's stomach to churn, upon realizing that Dark Jack had probably –if not _definitely_\- busted a kidnapping ring.

"Thank you," the small Faunus girl said as she walked right up to Dark Jack, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a hug. "Thank you for saving us."

Dark Jack simply uttered a low growl in turn, the young Faunus girl joining the others as they made their way out, giving the two Hunters a wide berth as they made their way out into the night.

"Do you think I should act as an escort for those women?" Port asked, the older members of the group visibly bristling at the man's comment.

"I think a Human is the _last _thing they want around them at the moment," Glynda said noticing their hunched posture as the women tightened their grip on their weapons.

"But I'm a Huntsman. These people should be _thrilled _that we're here," the man argued.

"Yes, except _we _aren't the ones that saved them. _He _did," she said gesturing to Dark Jack. "And if he'd never come here, no one would've ever known to come looking for them."

"Well, I think it's safe to say that these _curs _won't be doing harm upon Faunus ever again," the mustachioed man said casting a scathing glance at the cooling corpses strewn around the warehouse. He'd been around long enough to recognize that _Man _was the true Monster, and in comparison the Grimm were just a distraction. A really _effective _distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.

Once the women were clear, Dark Jack made for the door to leave, but Glynda interposed herself in his path, arms spread.

"Now hold just a minute, young man," the blond said sternly. "I'm not sure if you can hear me or not, but there's a limit to how much we can let you get away with. Student or not, if you try to leave, we _will _stop you."

"Um, Glynda, I don't think he likes that very much," Port said tightening his grip on his Blunderaxe as Dark Jack began to gnash his teeth together, the circular portals of light serving as his eyes narrowing into sharp triangles.

**"Not done yet…"** he growled, his throat rumbling as loose pebbles on the ground began to clatter around, the air rumbling around him. **"Go away… Go away… GO AWAAAAAAAAAY!" **he roared as a torrent of blood-like Aura began to spill into the air above him.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Moments later, Glynda and Port were sent crashing through the warehouse door with a loud _***CRASH-CRASH***_. Scant seconds later, and everything went straight to hell.

**Cue Blazblue Chrono Phantasma Soundtrack: Blood Pain II**

Glynda and Port rolling across the ground, they quickly righted themselves, weapons at the ready as massive fists pounded on the warehouse door halfway up from the ground. On the fifth pound, the door was sent hurtling their way, Port's Blunderaxe spewing fireballs towards the door and melting away the parts of it that would've struck them, saving them from having to leave their spots as what punched out the door came out into the open.

Dark Jack was prowling toward them, blood-like aura spilling out of his body into the air, and like a djinn from the lamp, an entity larger-than-life did rise, its waist-down obscured by that which it was birthed. Its body was vaguely humanoid in nature, muscles rippling like continental plates covered in a thick layer of silver fur that swayed in the wind. Its hands were oddly humanoid in nature with four fingers and a thumb, only instead of fingers they were tipped with long gray claws that looked more-than-capable of ripping flesh from bone. The menacing head sitting atop broad shoulders was what sent shivers running down their spines. Its muzzle was the same shade of gray as its claws, shaped vaguely reptilian and filled with long rows of pearly white dagger-like teeth, forward-facing nostrils actively flaring. It had bat-like ears, gray horns protruding backwards from the backs of its cheeks, similar horns running along the contour of its clavicles and over its shoulders. However, what was most-shocking were the eyes, two on each side, the forward pair facing forward like a carnivore while the rearward pair faced out like an herbivore, all the color of blood with cross-shaped slit pupils that took everything in with impunity.

"Good heavens, what manner of beast _is _that?" Port gawped as he tightened his grip on his Blunderaxe.

"That's his Intimidation. He used it once before when half of the lights were out, so I didn't get a good look at it at the time, but this is definitely the same technique he used on Ms. Rose to push her mettle to the limit."

"Whatever it is, I don't recognize the species of it. It looks dragonoid, but the layer of fur is definitely mammalian, and I don't think I've ever seen a manner of creature with more than two eyes before."

"Intimidation are purely conceptual in nature, and I don't think their appearance is consciously decided upon," Glynda answered.

"I don't think my ammo could put a _dent _in that thing," the man said checking the ammo around his waist.

"You won't need to. Intimidation are strictly illusionary, there's no way it can-"

_***CRNCH***_

The woman's words were cut off as the beast's left hand grabbed a nearby pallet of steel girders left out to rust, raising them with the ease of a child lifting building blocks. The two looking at one another, Port turned on his heel and ran as swiftly as his legs could carry him when the beast threw the cluster of I-Beams forward with a throw. Glynda was right behind him, her riding crop casting Glyphs across the ground that summoned pillars of stone up to intercept. While they didn't stop the storm of metal completely, it was enough to take most of the force out of it, giving them room to spare.

"You were saying?!" the portly man asked as he launched fireballs from his Blunderaxe, the projectile aiming for its eyes, only for the beast to raise its arm, the fireballs splashing against the thick layer of fur, burning some of it, but not penetrating.

"I don't understand… The manifestation of an Intimidation isn't meant to possess _any _form of corporality. The only way this could be possible is if the Spiritual Pressure were enough-so that it could impart force upon three-dimensional space, or-"

"Or that he's drawing power from the spirits that induced this rather _violent _transformation in the first place," Port hypothesized. "Still, I'm unsure what titillates me more…" he chuckled excitedly. "The possibility of so many souls working together to make a supplementary technique this powerful, or if this is the boy's _own _power drawn out to new heights. I'm positively _tingling_!"

"And here I thought that thing _frightened _you."

"Oh trust me, I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought… But that's what makes the hunt so much _fun_!" he said with a wide grin, his blood pumping as Dark Jack and the tyrannous beast hovering over him roared in tandem.

"I think the one being hunted is going to be _us_," Glynda said as Dark Jack ran forward on all fours, the Intimidating imitating the motion as though it had rear legs of its own.

The two scattering in opposite directions, both Dark Jack and the Intimidation dug their right claws into the ground, turning on a dime and chasing after Port without losing an ounce of momentum, massive clawed hands shaking the ground as the rotund man became the equivalent of a fox before hounds. Moments later, with speed bellying its girth, the massive Intimidation lunged forward maw-first, scooping up a chunk of the ground and Professor Port with it, attempting to close its jaws around him.

_*Huff!*Huff!*_ "Illusionary my _butt_! I can practically _taste _this thing… And I think it's tasting _me_!" Port cried as he fought to keep the jaws from swallowing him whole.

Witnessing the predicament her colleague was in, Glynda cast her Telekinesis upon the discarded girders before raising them high into the air. As she positioned them into the blind spot behind the nape of its neck, the bat-like ears of Dark Jack's intimidation twitched, and the right rearward eye glanced over its shoulder pinioning the woman a look. A shudder running up her spine as the cross-slit pupil gazed on her, she threw her riding crop forward, sending the rusty girders sailing through the air, the spin adding stability as they flew. A chuckle-like noise leaving its throat, the Intimidation became briefly intangible, the steel girders passing through its body and almost striking Port as he ghosted through its jaw. The next moment the man was scooped up, and like a softball, was sent flying through the air towards Glynda, the woman drawing fourth her ability to slow port down, only to get bowled over like a pin against a bowling ball.

"Ow…" Port groaned groaned as he pushed himself up, only to feel a strange softness in his hand. Looking down, he saw an irate Glynda, whose right melon was being squeezed by the man himself, his hand reflexively giving it another squeeze.

_***WHAP***_

The man's just-deserved punishment was a riding crop strike to the face that sent him reeling, a bright red mark left across his cheek. Glynda irately got to her feet and readjusted her clothing, while the man prostrated himself before her to escape her fury.

"Please, Glynda, it was unintentional, I swear!" he said bowing his head to the ground as he kneeled.

"If you tell anyone about his in one of your stories, I'll kill you. Do I make myself clear?"

"T-T-T-Translucently!" the man stuttered, shudder after uncomfortable _shudder _running up his spine at the sub-zero gaze he was being pinioned with.

"Good," the woman said turning her attention back to her opponent, whose massive arms were raised above its head in a massive axe-handle. "MOVE!" she shouted as the hammer came down, a wave of pressurized air filled with debris sent screaming their way. The end of her riding crop glowing brightly, a semi-transparent wedge the same color as her Aura briefly appeared before them, the wind and debris split asunder before them.

"Great Scott, the cross-sectional strength in that beast's muscles is _extraordinary_!" Port gawped as he beheld the damage.

"I suppose in a way we should be _glad _that beast is ordinarily nothing but conceptual. If something like that existed in the real world, the Grimm might be the _least _of our worries," Glynda postulated as he breathed out.

"Bart would have a _field day _hypothesizing how its anatomy would work if it were real," Port mentioned as he regained his composure, ignoring numerous episodic flashbacks from when he was young, stupid, and over-zealous in observing the female form. "At the very least that thing's bereft of weapons. I don't think those steel girders can be used again," he said as the beast looked around for something to beat them with, its peripheral eyes suddenly locking onto a large tarp spread out over a mound.

"Is that… dirt?" Port asked as the tarp was picked free.

"No, it's gravel," Glynda answered upon closer inspection.

"Well, what kind of damage could _that _cause? Our Aura alone would be able to shield us from fast-moving shrapnel fairly easily."

_*GASP* _"The Pelican! HE'S AIMING FOR THE PELICAN!" the woman realized. "He intends to limit our ability to chase him!"

"GADZOOKS!"

_***CRAAAAASH!***_

The Intimidation's massive hand scooping up gravel and sending it flying into the air, the massive cloud of irregularly-shaped rock and particles flew through the air straight for the Pelican. Dirt scraping up against the fuselage and gravel pinging against the windshield, the _real _sound to listen for was the horrible _***GRRRR*RRRRK***_ sound as the gravel was ingested into the engine, bouncing around like gravel in a lawnmower cranked to eleven. Fire and smoke belching out the exhaust as the other fine particulates blended into the fuel-air charge, the Pelican began lurching downward.

"No good, loves. I'm gonna have to put the bird down!" Lena said as she shakily lowered the Pelican for a landing in the middle of the street. Dark Jack immediately retracted his Intimidation and ran off, Glynda about to give chase only for the left engine of the Pelican to blow out, sending it careening towards an apartment complex. Abandoning the chase, the woman stretched her Telekinesis to the limit, taking hold of the Pelican and pulling it back towards the street, cradling it with her power for a gentler landing. By the time the Pelican was brought down with a low _***Thud***_, Dark Jack had already made good on his escape, the members of Team RWBY scrambling out the back as they appraised the damage.

**END OST  
**

"Lena, how soon until we're back in the air?" Ruby asked, the others looking around for a teammate who was no longer present.

"Ugh, not until we run this old bird through a full overhaul," the woman answered from the cockpit as she checked the instruments. "We've got loads-full of gravel and other fine particulates ingested in the intake manifold, and the compression blades and stator vanes are banged up all to 'ell. I managed to put her down pretty quickly after the initial assault, but based on the look of this exhaust cowling, I'd say the damage extends as far into the engine as the compressors."

"In… English?" Yang asked. She dealt with motorcycle cylinders, not airship turbines.

"We aren't going back up until the engine are cleaned and any damaged parts are replaced," Ruby answered. "Any further use of the engines at this point will only exacerbate the damage, making them more-costly to repair later even if we _could _fly again."

"So, what, we're supposed to track him down on foot?" the blond asked.

"That'd seem to be the case," Glynda stated. "The longer we wait, the more distance is put between us and Jack. We can't wait for another vehicle to come down, so it'll be us on foot from here-on out. So, Ms. Rose, what's our next move?"

"M-M-_Me_?"

"Yes, you," the woman replied. "This is your mission, we're just the backup on this one. Just because one little thing went bad doesn't mean you get to pass the book so easily."

'_I wouldn't call Jack's predicament '_one little thing_',' _Weiss huffed.

"Um, well, I um…" she stuttered nervously.

"Tick tock, Ms. Rose, our quarry is getting away," Port said in a stern tone.

"Yes! Time is money, and we're hemorrhaging it like a sieve!" Dr. Oobleck interjected.

"As a leader you need to be able to adapt to changing battlefield conditions on the fly! Even a single second could cost someone their lives!" Glynda scolded.

As all the teachers unconsciously ganged up on her, mounting the pressure until she was nothing but a stuttering mess, it was surprisingly Blake who stepped forward.

"Ruby, put your hands together."

"Wha-" _***CLAP* **_"EEP!" she cried as Blake loudly clapped the backs of her hands.

"There. Better?"

"Y… Yeah, I don't have the jitters anymore," Ruby realized. "What _was _that?"

"Just a little something to help with nerves. Shortcoming is you can't do it by yourself," Blake answered before stepping back. _'I should probably keep it to myself that this is a technique _chef _use, and not Huntresses.'_

"Thanks, Blake," Ruby said with a smile before facing her teachers, all trepidation once there completely evaporated. Taking a deep breath and puffing out her chest, the girl swiftly began doling out orders. "Blake, next to me, you're the fastest here, so we're going to pair up, cover as much ground as we can. Weiss, Yang, you two are going to go with Glynda and Port in case you find Jack first; the two of us will call you if the opposite serves true. Oobleck, you're going to stay with the Pelican and intercept Jack if he decides to backtrack. In the event that happens, use hit-and-run while we come back for you."

"That sounds like an _excellent _plan. Very good, Ms. Rose!" Port chuckled.

"Yes, that is a most excellent idea! Most excellent indeed!" Dr. Oobleck replied.

"Good. We know our course of action," Glynda sighed in relief.

"Alright everybody, stay in radio contact, I want frequent updates!" Ruby asserted as she led everyone away from the ship. "Dr. Oobleck, in the meantime, keep an ear on the police radio for any sightings, and we'll change the course of our search accordingly."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Ms. Rose! I've just recorded creature sightings cutting through Vale's Residential District. He appears to be taking a south-southwestern bearing."

"Got it!" Ruby responded. "Weiss, take your group on a southward bearing in case Jack suddenly turns to the east. Blake and I will continue on a southwestern bearing and attempt to get him in a pincer-hold."

"Roger that."

"Ruby," Blake said as the two of them leapt from building to building, the streets of Vale largely empty after the pillar of crimson light scared everyone into their homes. "Did you ever think our first mission would turn out so badly?"

"Well… It could've gone _worse_. Jack could've been struck dead the moment he touched that thing, and then there'd be a vacancy in our room we'd never be able to fill again."

"But… What if he's already dead _now_? What if the Jack we know is already gone for good?"

"No, that isn't the case," Ruby said with a shake of her head. "After he tore apart those LOKI, when he fought the four of us, he always held back, right where it counted. He could've juiced Weiss' head like a melon, but he didn't. Instead he hit himself right where it hurt, and ran off before he could hurt any of us. That's why I think he's still in there."

"Right… I see," Blake hummed in realization. "Still… What happened with the Crimson Orb… I only thought I'd ever see something like that in a _horror _movie, yet there it was, happening right before my eyes."

"Yeah, that kinda threw me for a loop too," Ruby realized. "Of course, I should've seen _something _like that coming when I asked Jack to touch that thing with his bare hands."

"Somehow, I doubt a pair of gloves would've made any difference," Blake said with a flat expression. "We're dealing with supernatural forces beyond our ken. I doubt conventional rules even apply anymore."

"What, like ghosts and goblins?" Ruby asked skeptically, looking at her like she was the "crazy person" you'd find on every bus.

"How can you _possibly _make that kind of face with what's just happened?!" Blake raged, momentarily breaking her composure. "What if Jack grows wings and starts breathing fire!? Are you really going to try and apply science to _that_?!"

"Hmmm. I guess you're right," she conceded. _*GASP* _"Does that mean the Angel of Valhalla is real _too_!?"

"The legendary all-white Chocobo said to appear at the end of the world?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow. "Well, there already _are _breeds of White Chocobo out there, and I honestly can't imagine _the end of the world _happening in _our _lifetimes, but since the Ruby of Grief turned out to be real, I suppose it _is _possible that eventually, one like the legends would appear," she hummed. "Wait, where did _you _hear about this? That story's only told among the Faunus," she said, before clapping her hand over her mouth.

"Jack told me about it as one of my bedtime stories," the girl said with a thousand-watt smile, completely missing Blake's blunder. "I think my _favorite _one was about the raiding parties of thirty he'd gather to hunt dragons back in Skyrim for their meat and their scales, and even their leather when he could get good cuts of it."

"Oh my god, dragons are_ real_!" Blake realized as she had a flashback, the memory dragged to the fore by Ruby's telling of Jack's hunting of dragons during his stay abroad.

_**"****Hey Jack, that leather jacket of yours. What's it made of?" Blake asked as Jack hung his dark-green leather jacket on a hanger after their day out.**_

_**"****Dragon leather," he answered without an ounce of hesitation.**_

"I thought he was _joking _about the dragon leather!" the hidden Faunus gawped as images of Jack and a party of Nords hunting live dragons came to mind.

"Why would Jack joke about fireproof dragon leather?" Ruby asked.

"How do you know it was fireproof?"

"Jack lit his windbreaker on fire for me one time. Not a scratch or scorch to be found."

"_Dragons are real… dragons are real… dragons are real…" _the girl shuddered as she imagined being hunted down by a dragon in the wild and eaten whole.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it. Most of them are centralized to Skyrim," Ruby said allaying the girls' fears. "I mean _sure_, the cold makes their volume to surface area ratio much larger than in warmer climates, but _still_, we shouldn't have to worry about any giant dragons unless we go to Skyrim. That or one of them migrates because it was pushed out of its own territory."

"And just h-how many dragons are _there_?" Blake asked, wondering if the dragons were part of why Skyrim had next to no tourists going into the country. Or the _whole _reason.

"Don't know. Jack only told me that they breed like rabbits out there. Vicious, territorial, fire-breathing, bullet-proof rabbits that can _fly_," Ruby punctuated, causing Blake to freak the _fuck out _on the inside.

'_Oh my god… I bet every cell in my body tastes like _FUCKING TUNA_!' _she raged to herself as she mentally ripped out her hair, seriously considering changing up her diet, if only so she wasn't so appetizing to any potential predators capable of eating her on one bite.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about getting eaten though. Unless they're really hungry, or you manage to tick one off, they usually go for the larger game," Ruby stated. "For example, the _bears _over there are much larger than the Ursa and Ursa Minor you'll find around Vale. Of course, that's because the colder a region is, the larger the animals living there will become to more-effectively retain body heat with a larger cross-sectional area."

"Where was this part of you when we were cramming for finals?" she asked after witnessing Ruby's information-retention.

"I-I learn things better when they're in _story _format, okay?" Ruby said embarrassingly.

"Ruby! Ruby come in!"

"What is it, Weiss?"

"We just spotted Jack!"

"Where is he?"

"He's at a river-side tavern in the Industrial District! He just kicked the door down, and I think people are _dying _down there!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Um, the people screaming _bloody murder _is a pretty strong indicator," Yang deadpanned.

"_Bloody murder! Bloody murder!"_ someone in the background screamed.

"Is he attacking people at random or not?" Ruby asked nervously.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"No, it doesn't appear to be random in the slightest," Professor Port said as he looked into the bar with a pocket telescope, a must-have for any aspiring adventurer. "The only ones he appears to be attacking are those wearing the same logo we found on the side of that warehouse he attacked."

"Well, how much is he hurting them?" Ruby asked.

_"AaaaAHHHHuhhh!"_

_"Wilhelm, nooo!"_

"A lot. He's hurting them _a lot_," the portly professor answered as one poor soul had his stomach clawed off, spilling entrails into his lap. _"Bad way to go."_

"Keep eyes on them. Blake and I will be there as soon as we can," Ruby said before the line cut out.

"So what do we do now?" Weiss asked.

"We wait," Port said with crossed arms. "The patron-goers appear to be smart-enough, even when inebriated, to not senselessly attack something completely beyond their ability to handle."

"Except _that _poor sap," Yang said looking through her own telescope as she watched a guy bust a pool cue over the top of Jack's head, only for his tail to rise up and smash the guy into the floorboards with the flat. "Man, people are stuuuuu_pid_ when they get a little alcohol in them."

"Says the girl who drove straight into a lake," Weiss huffed.

"That was _one time_!" the blond snapped back.

"It appears that most of the uninvolved patrons have already left, sans the barkeep who's cowering behind the counter," Port stated as he looked in.

"That just leaves those with their pride on the line," Glynda said looking in.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"What he fucking hell _is _that thing?!" a white-hooded teen said holding up a pool cue, watching as one of the patrons got turned into a smear under the floorboards.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it is aaaan_gry!_" another whooped as though this were some kind of game. "Come get some get some little doggie!" he shouted as he whipped out a lever-action and fired, buckshot ripping apart a stool as the transformed Faunus dodged at the last second. "Dangit! Stand! Still!" he growled as he fired off with each word, the transformed Faunus closing the gap with each leap before blurring in front of him and clawing the man's face off with a downward swipe.

As the now-faceless racist clawed at his face, or lack-thereof, the teen with the pool cue roared as he lunged at the transformed Faunus and broke it in half over his head with a _***CRACK***_. The split end of the pool cue spinning through the air, Dark Jack snatched it before rounding on his assailant and stabbed it through his eye in one fell swoop.

"GAAAAH!" the racist cried as his synapses fired like a gattling gun through the rapidly-swelling remains of his cerebral tissue. At the same time, another teen in a white Circle hoodie was crawling along the floor, hiding beneath tables and making his way toward the exit. However, before he could get halfway out, a pair of clawed hand grabbed the underside of the table he was hiding beneath and flipped it, exposing the cowering teen underneath. "For the love of god, please don't hurt me!" he pleaded as the transformed Faunus grabbed him by the front of his shirt and started shaking him like a nerd being shaken down for his lunch money.

Moments later, a collection of papers dropped from his pocket. Dropping the nerd-treated human to pick it up, Dark Jack saw something that made him scowl. One was a picture of a pretty Faunus girl with red hair and cat ears with fluffy tips, something innocent-enough for a teenage boy. The next piece was a hand-written memo about her work-schedule, and that on itself was a _little _concerning, but not enough to get totally upset over. However, the _third _paper was a crudely drawn map that looked like the route the Faunus girl took home from work every day, with a number of **X** marks with arrows pointing toward a cat-shaped symbol when it was situated in a back alley well-away from prying eyes.

And if all _that _wasn't enough to incite one's anger, there were a list of sexual positions with different forms of bondage. Oh, and at the bottom was _literally _a memo about where to "dump the body".

"**Raaape…iiist…" **Dark Jack snarled as his hand gripped the papers in his hands, which ignited as his Aura agitated their molecules.

"All I wanted was a little _pussy_. Was that so wrong?" the Circle teen whimpered as the black beast raised its hands above its head in an axe handle.

_***SPLAT***_

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Meanwhile back at what was left of the town square, with the wrecked fountain belching water onto the cobblestone, the babbling sound of water echoed throughout unimpeded. When there was the red light, and the explosion of power, and then the "monster", everyone had run for their lives. And for one reason or another there was a _tumbleweed_ of all things bouncing across the ground.

That silence however was broken by the footsteps of two figures, who walked among the shadows of one of the streets between buildings as the sun began to set.

"Huh. Looks like we missed the party," the first figure said. He was an extremely muscular and exceptionally tall man with messy blue neck-length hair, three scars running from his ear to just under his left eye, and strong angular features with somewhat catlike eyes. His attire consisted of a tight sleeveless muscle orange spandex jumpsuit with tight cargo pants, a thin black muscle t-shirt, and dark blue knee-high boots.

"That much is evident, yes," the second man replied. He was very tall and muscular, but not to the amount of his compatriot. He had striking facial features, prominent sideburns running down the angles of his jaws, short bushy eyebrows, and piercing brown eyes. His attire consisted of an all-black suit with green bands wrapping around the waist, biceps, wrists, neck, and around his choppy black hair, as well as green bands running from below his knees to his ankles, black shoes on his feet. "Do you smell anything?"

"Hmmm… I smell a lot of sweat. And fear. And just the slightest trace of urine," the taller man said as his nose twitched. "I guess something scared a lot of people off, including the cops if the faint scent of donuts and coffee is anything to go by. What about you? Do you see anything?"

"Only the slightest traces of electromagnetic waves, but those are fading very quickly," the turban-wearing man replied. "I think it's safe to say that what I've been asked to investigate is no longer here."

"What _was _here? I know I saw _something _from the airship, but I don't have eyes like you do," the man said walking over to an abandoned fruit cart. Placing some bills on the counter, he grabbed an armful of oranges and began chowing down, skin and all.

"Something old and very unknown from before the annals of recorded history," the turban-wearing man replied. "Suffice it to say, what we're looking for isn't here anymore. We'll just have to follow the trail and see where things left off."

"Alright, I'm on it," the blue-haired man said as he walked towards what was left of the fountain. As he did so, he crammed the rest of the oranges into his mouth, his cheeks puffing up to beyond-chipmunk-like proportions before he pulped them with his teeth and gulped the citrus matter down. "Hmmm…" he said dragging his fingers along the ground before wafting it under his nose. "There were people here earlier… two young women, Human, and one male, Faunus. The Faunus' scent is the most-prevalent, however, it appears to be intermingled with something else."

"Something else like what?"

"I'm not sure. If I had to describe it, I'd say it smelled like death, and regret," the blue-haired man with a sad look on his face. "I can smell blood here too. And cleaning products. _Lots _of it. Like someone continually dumped bodies here for everyone to see, and it was repeatedly cleaned up."

"Hm, I see. I _do _see remnants of the Shadow of Death lingering here," the turban-wearing man stated, his eyes seeing things beyond conventional Human, or Faunus, understanding. "So I can probably understand why you smell _regret _here."

"Yeah… It smells like blood and tears. And fear-sweat," the blue-haired man replied as he rose to full height, sighing tiredly as he looked off to the side. "The Faunus' scent goes off in that direction. By the sweet tinge I'm picking up, I'd say he was a Honey Badger breed."

"Alright then, we should probably get going," the turban-wearing man replied as he followed his compatriot. Halfway out the square however, the blue-haired man turned on his heel and bolted back toward the abandoned food cart. His fingers digging into the sides, the man hoisted it above his head and poured the rest of the fruit into his open gullet. Only once it was empty did the man set the cart back down, before slapping a large stack of lien onto the counter. "Really?" the turban-wearing man asked incredulously.

"What? I was hungry?" the glutton replied before he went back to following the bloody-honey smell.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

" . . . Things got really quiet all of a sudden," Yang said as the screaming inside the bar came to a grinding halt. The transformed Faunus leaping through a destroyed window a moment later, he began scratching irritatingly at the ground, head panning from side to side, sniffing at the ground as though he were trying to find the trail of a scent. "Well, what's he doing?"

"_Shh! Keep quiet," _Glynda shushed as everyone ducked. _"He's listening for us."_

"_How good is his hearing?"_ Yang asked, Dark Jack whirling around to stare them down through the telescope a second later.

"_Shit, he's onto us!" _Yang tsked.

"Yeah, we noticed," Weiss said as she leapt off the roof and stood her ground in front of Dark Jack with Glynda, Yang and Port priming their weapons from behind him. Dark Jack in turn, turned so he was perpendicular to the two teams, warily looking between the two of them.

"Mr. Braxton, if you're still in there, I need you to speak to us," Port said as he slowly creeped forward.

"**GrrrrRR!"** the transformed Faunus growled angrily as he slapped at the ground leaving cracks.

"Maybe he'd be more-receptive to his own teammates," Yang said waving the portly man down before stepping towards her teammate. "Hey there… uh… _you_…" the blond said standing next to him, the transformed Faunus' white-washed eyes regarding her. "It's me… Yang. You probably knew that. Anyway… I'm guessing there are some other people floating around the old brain-pan right now, so I was just wondering if… _you all… _would mind letting me speak to Jack for a minute… Okay?"

**" . . . "** Dark Jack regarded her before clamping his eyes shut, a hand going to rub at his eyes before he looked up, his eyes now a soothing jade color. **"Yang… Is that you?"** he asked blinking his eyes. **"What happened after I blacked out?"**

"You uh… You ran around a bit…" she said, unsure how to answer. "What have _you _been doing? You uh… have any friends over?"

**"Ugh… My memory's a bit fuzzy,"** Jack groaned. **"I think I was _fighting _someone."**

"Okay, okay, that's good," Yang nodded. "Hey um, listen… When do you think you'll finish up so we can go home?" she said trying to ignore the horns, claws, and tail he'd sprouted.

**"I… I think…"** Jack said rubbing his head as his eyes flickered from jade to white. **"I think there's one more stop I have to make… and then I'll be done."**

"Oh… Well, okay the-"

"No! No more bodies!" Glynda shouted irately. "The warehouse was one thing, our witness testimony alone could say you broke up a Slaver ring you happened to stumble upon. But Jack attacked the people in that bar for seemingly no reason! If he goes on one more rampage, he could become an enemy of the state, or worse, _we _could all lose our licenses!"

"Hey, if Ozpin didn't want someone going on a rampage, he should've sent a _grown-up _to sort this thing out, not a bunch of _kids_!" Yang shouted as she went red-eyed, eliciting a- "Hey!" -out of Ruby in the background. "You don't have _any _right giving us crap when we were following _your _orders!"

"Don't you take that tone with _me _young lady!" Glynda shouted. "Orders or no orders, it's called _accountability_! And if Jack doesn't stop this instance, I'll-"

"You'll _what_!? Give us detention?!" Yang demanded. "It can't be any worse than what you want to do to _Jack_! I thought you were actually _cool _with him now, but you're still the same racist bitch who assumes he's going to go on a killing spree just because he's a Faunus!"

"He _has _gone on a killing spree!"

"Yeah! Because those assholes had it _coming_!"

"Being an _asshole _isn't a crime!"

"Oh _I _see what you're doing now! Your one of _those _people who wants everyone to think that Humans can't do any wrong, and that _Faunus _are the only ones capable of being evil! Admit it!"

"That isn't what I'm aiming for and you know it!"

"Ladies, perhaps you should cease your bickering and let cooler heads prevail," Port interjected.

"AND WHY'S THAT!?" the two blondes demanded.

"All this negative energy seems to be upsetting the poor lad," Port said pointing to Jack, whose eyes were rapidly flickering between white, baleful red, golden amber, and peaceful jade like a busted television bulb, his body trembling like he were restraining some unseen rage. "It almost reminds me of how my parents would always bicker when I was a child, and I'd cower in the closet trembling in fear, and later feel guilty as though their arguing were my own fault. Those were dark times indeed. _Daaark _times," he said shaking his head.

" . . . You've got _problems_," Yang said shuddering.

"I _prefer _to think I'm _complicated_," the portly professor huffed with crossed arms.

"Um… I think Jack's starting to get _worse_," Weiss said worriedly as the transformed Faunus began to gnash his teeth, a crimson aura mixed with bits of black spilling out of his body.

"Oh shit! He's gone all white-eyed!" Yang cried as the color in his eyes gave way to completely colorless white portals.

**"Graaaaaah!"**

"He's going for the high ground!" Weiss cried as Dark Jack leapt atop a lamp post, crouched like a big cat with his tail out for balance.

"Not for long!" Yang shouted as she cocked her Ember Celica, launching herself into the air with a _Yang_.

**"Boo! You suck!"**

**Bite me, Grif!**

**"Even I knew that was bad."**

**Shut it, Simmons!**

Landing atop the lamp post, the blond struggled for her balance for a couple seconds, arms flailing at her sides before she got both feet on the post. "Get down from there, Jack!" Yang shouted as she drew her fist back. Firing off a shot, the recoil caused her foot to slip, sending the blond plummeting toward the ground and landing on her head. Dark Jack fell forward to dodge, his tail hooking around the post leaving him hanging.

"It looks like negotiations have failed," Port said dourly as he leveled his Blunderaxe, reluctantly launching fireballs towards one of his brightest pupils, Glynda pulling the disoriented Yang out of the line of fire. "It seems Jack is proving rather difficult to get a bead on," he said as he continued to belch balls of fire from his weapon, only for Dark Jack to continue to dodge.

"Watch where you're firing that thing! We're _already _going to get enough flak for the pile of dead bodies! We don't need to add collateral damage to that!" Glynda shouted as she tried to slap some sense into the blond.

"My apologies, Glynda!" Port apologized as he began to launch fireballs with a little more care. "Um, Glynda, I think he's starting to get _bored _here," he said worriedly as he observed the look on his student's face. "I think he's going to make a run for it!" he said recognizing the signs.

"Not if _I _have anything to say about it!" Weiss said as she brandished her Myrtenaster, ejecting the revolving mechanism and dumping all the Dust Vials before quickly loading all the slots with Cyan Dust. Twirling her rapier before stabbing it into the ground, the street began to rumble as lines of ice traced their way out from her in all directions, veering off-course at the edges of the street before a massive wall of ice was erected around them, blocking access to the ends of the street and the nearby storefronts. The air growing rapidly colder, a cool mist began to fall from sheer ice walls and pool around the ground.

"Brilliantly done, Ms. Schnee!" Port congratulated. "I don't think _anything _could escape this icy prison."

"This is a temporary measure at best," Weiss said getting to her feet before looking at her Scroll, her Aura roughly around **50%** after raising the massive ice fortress around them all. "I made the walls as sheer as I could without sacrificing structural integrity, but he could still claw his way up with the natural tools he possesses. Don't let him get any momentum!" she said right as Dark Jack began to do just that.

"I understand!" Port said as he slammed the pommel of his weapon into the ground, causing a fireball to bounce out the handle with a low _***POOM***_. Brandishing his weapon like a bat, the portly professor struck the fireball with one of his Blunderaxe blades and sent it screaming at his target, striking Dark Jack square on the chest and knocking him to the ground.

"I feel like we're forgetting something," Yang said as Dark Jack ran to one of the corners and began scratching at the ground. "Shit! I forgot! He could just _dig _his way out!"

"Not if _I _have anything to say about it! Hyrah!" Glynda shouted as she enveloped him in a TK field, spreading his limbs out before bodily throwing him against one of the walls, then another, then another.

"Hey, watch with the throwing! You're going to break my ice wall!" Weiss cried out.

"_That's _what you're worried about!?" Yang squawked.

"Hey, Jack's a big boy! He can take a hit or two!" Weiss snapped back. "My ice wall on the other hand will _BREAK _if you punish it anymore!" she snapped at Glynda. "And if he kicks it into high gear we might _never _catch him!"

"Aren't Ms. Rose and Belladonna coming to back us up?" Port asked as Dark Jack unleashed a burst of Aura that broke Glynda's telekinetic hold on him.

"They are, but it'll still be a few minutes 'til they get here," Yang said looking into her Scroll before pocketing it and began firing slugs at her teammate. "Weiss, how much Aura does he have left?"

"Sixty percent, maybe? His Aura's fluctuating and I can't get a read on it," Weiss said looking into her Scroll, the bar representing Jack's aura bobbing up and down, the screen itself spazzing out and de-rezzing like a TV with bad reception.

"I'm just saying, _one more _killing spree involving bad guys and this problem would solve it_se-eeeelf~_" Yang said to Glynda in a sing-song tone.

"Jack isn't acting like a sanctioned assassin or a Bounty Hunter, he's running around like a _hitman_," Glynda said irately as she fired concussive TK bursts at him that sent him rolling across the street.

"What's the difference?" the blond asked with a raised brow.

"One is a job and the other's mental sickness!" Port said as he continued to lob fireballs before batting them towards the transformed Faunus.

"I don't even want to _ask _why you had such a quick response to that," Weiss deadpanned.

"I'm just _saying_, again, after hearing the backstory straight from the badger's mouth, whoever makes their way onto his shit list has it coming," Yang said with a huff.

"What did he tell you!?" Weiss gawped.

" . . . _Nothing_! He told me _nothing _in the showers!" Yang blurted out.

"What did the two of you do in the _showers_!?" Weiss squawked.

"While I fully intend to follow up on that _questionable_ topic later, right now we have more _pressing _matters," Glynda said as she pulled Dark Jack away from the wall he was attempting to claw his way through with a burst of TK. She then pressed him to the ground as though the hand of an invisible giant were weighing down on him.

"How exactly are we supposed to get him back to Beacon while he's in this mindset?" Yang asked as Dark Jack began to claw at the ground, forcing Glynda to throw him into the air and away from his escape route.

"I… did not actually think that far," Glynda blushed in embarrassment before Dark Jack burst out of her telekinetic hold.

"WHAT?!" Yang shrieked as fire exploded around her. "You mean you gave me all that flak about letting Jack take out the city's trash, and you didn't even have a plan for _your _idea!?"

"Hey, adults make mistakes sometimes too!" Glynda argued.

"Oh, like sending kids on a mission instead of an _expert_?!" Yang demanded. "This whole mess wouldn't have happened if one of _you _had been sent to deal with that thing in town instead!"

"Ladies, whatever force has taken over his body has gotten _smarter_!" Port said as he launched fireballs at Dark Jack, who was bounding across one of the walls in completely randomized patterns. And each cycle of movements was getting him closer and closer to jumping the wall.

"_SUUUUUPERRRRR…"_

"Do you guys hear that?" Yang asked as she fired off shots at the ice fortress' rim to keep her teammate from escaping.

"_LADYBUUUUUUG…"_

"It sounds like it's coming _closer_!" Weiss said as she formed Glyphs along the wall and ran after him, only for the transformed Faunus to rake his claws across the wall and bound above the top of the wall.

"ATTAAAAACK!" Ruby cried as she and Blake came over the wall, ribbon stretched between and catching Dark Jack between the horns in a flying lariat, dragging him back down into the ice fortress.

"Guys! You made it!" Yang whooped as they brought Dark Jack down, the two quickly tangling Blake's ribbon so it was wrapped around the top of his right horn and under the bottom of his left.

"Yeah! The big ice wall was sort of hard to miss!" Ruby said as she pulled on her end of Blake's ribbon and stopped Dark Jack's forward movement.

"Yeah. That," Blake said as she squared her stance and wrapped her end of the ribbon around her arm with Ruby doing the same. That however proved to be a bit of a bad idea as Dark Jack suddenly went the opposite way, the ribbon stretching out before snapping taut and hauling the two off their feet, Ruby and Blake letting out surprised yelps as they ran around the enclosed street, the two girls slamming into the rest of the mission team as the transformed Faunus ran laps while trying to shake them loose.

"YAAAAAAANG!" Ruby cried as she bounced across the ground. "HEEEEELP MEEEEEEE!"

"Hang in there, Rubes! I've got you!" Yang said as she wrapped her arms around Ruby's waist, only to get dragged along for the ride. "This went better in my HEAAAAAAAD!" she cried as they banked around a tight run, scraping up against the side of Weiss' ice wall. "Aaaaaah! Coldcoldcoldcoldcold!"

"That turned out exactly as I thought it'd go in _my _head," Weiss said staring blankly at the trio, as they passed, Blake's hand snaking out and grabbing her wrist, pulling her along with a shriek. "EYAAAAAAAGH!"

"JAAAAAAACK! STOP RUNNING!" the collective of Team RWBY shouted.

"Ah, fair young maidens screaming a boy's name as they trailed behind. Reminds me of _my _days at Beacon," Port said as he stroked his moustache, Glynda shuddering as she imagined teenage girls pining for an equally teenage Port. At least she _hoped _he was a teenager when that happened. " . . . We should probably help them."

"Yes, lets," Glynda said as they stepped to the side as Dark Jack made another pass, the two grabbing onto Blake's ribbon and planting their feet, digging trenches in the asphalt as they slowly pulled Dark Jack to a stop.

"Oh thank gawd…" Ruby panted as she stopped being dragged along the ground.

"Okay, so we've held him down. What do we do now?" Blake asked as the two groups of three held Dark Jack back from running forward.

"We guide him back to Beacon, put him somewhere no-one can see him, and wait for this whole debacle to blow over," Glynda stated.

"What if he decides to cut the rope?" Port asked.

"What makes you think he's going to do that?" Ruby asked.

"He's smirking at us and making scissoring motions with his fingers," he said directing their eyes towards the end of their ribbon, the jack-o-lantern-like face of the transformed Faunus snickering at them before he cut the ribbon with his talons, sending the six of them tumbling backwards.

_***CRASH* *CRASH* *CRASH***_

The six getting to their feet and looking up, saw that Dark Jack had begun punching the ice wall at the end of the street, a large spider-web crack forming a crater. The six of them quickly getting into battle formation and drawing their weapons, Dark Jack looked over his shoulder before facing them entirely, forming a six-versus-one stare down. The wind picking up, a tumbleweed of all things bounced across the misty street between them.

"Sure is windy this evening," Yang stated.

"Where'd that thing even _come _from?" Weiss asked looking around in shock.

"FOCUS!" Ruby cried out getting everyone's attention back to the matter at hand as Dark Jack drew his right fist back.

"Be careful. Whatever he's about to do, it's making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end," Glynda said tightening the grip on her riding crop.

"Um, guys, the swirly tattoos on his body are starting to glow red," Ruby said as the tattoos did exactly that. "WHY ARE THEY TURNING RED!?"

"In my experience, when something ominously turns red, that usually means something _bad _is going to happen," Port stated as he tightened his grip on his Blunderaxe.

"Then why aren't we attacking him first?" Blake asked, reluctantly.

"If he's leading us into a trap, it could end very badly," Weiss answered plainly moments before Dark Jack slammed his fist into the ground, a baleful red magic circle quickly taking form.

While Weiss' Glyph had a soothing winter theme all the way down to color, and Glynda's had elegant rings of runic inscriptions, that which formed was more tribal in nature, resembling cave drawing portraying conflict and suffering of innumerable types. The very center bore the depiction of the balance between the Visible and Invisible Worlds, a vertical infinity-shaped symbol with rings running along the unending length.

The ground rumbling, what appeared to be _blood _began to bubble up from the cracks made, spreading across the ground and a heavy miasma spilling into the air. From the cauldron-like pool, as though taken straight from a horror movie, humanoid figures covered head to toe in blood began to rise one by one, wailing in torment and agony as they began to walk forward, dragging weapons of varying types behind them, pulling hoods over their heads.

"S-Summoning?!" Weiss squawked as the humanoid effigies began to walk forward, numbering around a dozen strong. "I thought only the _Schnee _family could Summon!"

"The Schnee are the most-widely recognized summoners, but other means to summon do in fact exist across Remnant," Glynda corrected.

"What kind of messed-up power-up did the Ruby of Grief _give _him!?" Ruby cried as she shuddered like the time she watched an R-Rated horror movie behind her dad's back and had nightmares for a week straight.

"Clearly, one beyond our understanding," Port shuddered. "Why, this reminds me of the time I-"

"Not now! They're coming!" Yang shouted as an attacking force of thirteen-strong lunged at them all at once. Cocking her Ember Celica, she began to launch flares at the zombie-like foes charging at her, their bodies exploding into geysers of blood, only to reform seconds later. "Those things can regenerate? Oh that is _bullshit_!"

"THIS IS MY WORST NIGHTMARE!" Ruby cried as she blew one's head off, staggering it for a few seconds only for it to regenerate. "OH GOD! _WHY _DID I WATCH THAT R-RATED MOVIE WHEN I WAS ONLY FIFTEEEEEEN?!"

"I don't care _how _well Ozpin decides to pay us! I will have _nothing _to do with this sort of thing ever again!" Blake said as she shot at the summoned blood-zombies like her life depended on it.

"Fight like your young lives depend on it! Because it kind of does," Port stated.

"We're already aware of that!" Team RWBY said in unison as they fought back the undead horde.

"Where's Jack?!" Glynda said as she threw a blood-zombie away.

"He's going over that wall!" Weiss shouted as she pointed to Dark Jack's tail disappearing over the lip of the wall.

"We need to go after him!" Yang cried.

"I DON'T WANT TO BECOME ONE OF THEM!" Ruby cried using her sniper rifle like it were a shotgun.

"This ice wall really backfired!" Blake swore as she slashed at the blood-zombies gunning for her. "We're trapped in here with them!"

"We're running out of ammo!" Ruby cried.

"_The human mind has _infinite _ammo!" _a voice shouted from the distance.

"Who said that?" Ruby asked.

_***Whoosh***_

_***POW*POW*POW*POW*POW*POW*POW*POW*POW***_

"Professor!" Ruby cheered as the green-haired teacher whooshed in and roundhouse-kicked every blood-zombie in the face knocking them over.

"Doctor," Dr. Oobleck corrected. "You ladies go on without us. Professor Port and myself will hold down the fort."

"We will-I mean, we _will_!" Port replied.

"Alright then! Get us out of here, Ice Queen!" Ruby shouted pointing dramatically at the nearest wall.

"Hey!" Weiss squawked as she readied Red Dust in her Myrtenaster before she began melting a hole through her wall, the pack of blood-zombies lumbering towards them, only for Dr. Oobleck to run interference by searing a line in the street.

"Be careful, old friend. We're dealing with forces beyond our comprehension," Dr. Oobleck said as he began running laps around the blood-zombies, slowly picking up speed until the threat was contained in a veritable cyclone.

"Oh hoh! My favorite kind!" Professor Port said haughtily as he began launching fireballs into Dr. Oobleck's cyclone, creating a fiery maelstrom that enveloped the blood-zombies, their pained wailings fading into the night as Team RWBY and Glynda left the place behind.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Are they going to be okay on their own?" Ruby asked as she and the other girls ran off after the transformed Faunus.

"Don't worry, Ms. Rose. They'll be back in class telling bombastic stories and long-winded lectures next time you see them," Glynda assured them.

"There he is!" Yang shouted as she pointed at the unmistakable shape running free along empty streets. Apparently after the big light show from town square, everyone had closed the shutters and locked themselves in; standard procedure for a Grimm invasion actually.

"He's going to get away!" Blake shouted as they picked up the pace.

"_No _he's not," Weiss argued.

"He got away," Ruby deadpanned as Dark Jack veered left at a crossroads.

"Not if _I _have anything to say about it!" Yang said as she launched herself over the corner of a building, following Dark Jack down a thoroughfare. "Hey! You guys! Get out of the way!" she shouted seeing two figures standing in the middle of the road. Both of them were incredibly tall and muscular, the one on the left with a mane of blue hair wearing mostly orange clothes, while the one on the right had short black hair and wore a black bodysuit with green bandages around his frame.

**"GRAAAAAAH!" **Dark Jack growled as he lunged at the black-clad figure for getting in his way.

"FORK SHIELD!" the blue-haired man bellowed as he stepped to the side and threw his left arm out in a hook across his body, causing a massive glowing fork made of bluish light to curve around him. A loud _***CLANG* **_sounding through the air as Dark Jack's arm thrust struck the back of the massive utensil, the blue-haired giant threw his left arm out, the massive fork mimicking the motion and throwing the transformed Faunus back.

"Yaaaaang! Did you catch up to him?" Ruby cried as she came around the corner.

"Coco, you're late," Glynda directed at the black-haired man.

"My apologies, Glynda. I got held up with a client," the now-named Coco apologized with a bow.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Weiss asked.

"And might I ask what Toriko's doing here?" the blond then asked turning to the blue-haired man.

"Eh, I thought I'd come to Vale and try some seafood," the blue-haired man said with a shrug, his nose twitching as he looked at the transformed Faunus. "I take it _he _was at the center of the town square when that thing Coco was going to investigate exploded?" he asked.

"More or less," Glynda replied.

"Wait, _he's _the one who was late?" Yang asked as she narrowed her eyes. "That means this is _his _fault!"

"I knew you were going to say that," Coco answered in turn.

"Of course you did," Glynda sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Listen, I appreciate the help, but you're a bit late to the party."

"By the smell of things here, I'd say we came just in time," Toriko said scratching his nose, catching the faint scent of perspiration and fatigue toxins coming off the five women before him. "What do you say, Coco? How do things look?"

"There are multiple Shadows of Death hanging over him, but none of them are his _own_, per-se," Coco answered as his eyes worked overtime. "That being the case, we should try to avoid hurting him too thoroughly."

" . . . If you two think you can help him, we won't get in your way," Glynda said pushing Team RWBY back.

"Now hold on just a minute. Who the heck are _these _guys? How are they supposed to help Jack?" Yang asked, wondering why she was being benched.

_*GAAAAAAASP*_ "That's Toriko and Coco, two of the Four Heavenly Kings!" Ruby audibly gasped. "I recognize them from Gourmet News Magazine!"

"When did _you _become a gourmand?" Weiss asked.

"_Shush! They're about to start!"_ Ruby whispered as she got out of the way, Dark Jack's attention solely fixated on the two new opponents that appeared before him.

**Cue - Go Shock My Way! by Akira Kushida**

"Remember, Toriko. We aren't trying to _break _him, we just need to make his body weary, and his spirit will follow," Coco stated.

"Got it!" Toriko said as he formed his hands into a knife and fork shape, a _***clang* **_sounding as he brushed them against each other. "Stabbing Knives!" he shouted as he slashed down with his right hand, a plethora of glowing knives flying through the air and swiftly pinning Dark Jack's feet to the ground.

"Poison Dressing!" Coco shouted as he ran forward, the skin on his right hand turning a noxious shade of purple before he threw it out, globules of purple black-tinged jelly-like liquid flying through the air. Dark Jack struggled to move against the knives pinning his feet to the ground, so he instead raised his arms to guard his face. The globules that struck the armor on his arms slid off, but the rest struck his body through the spots where his clothing had been burned. To Team RWBY's surprise, Dark Jack staggered for a moment, falling to one knee before shaking it off and breaking free of Toriko's knives. "I figured as much."

"Figured what?" Toriko asked as he threw his left arm out. "Flying Fork!" he shouted as dozens of fork-like constructs flew through the air, Dark Jack bounding around the street in an effort to dodge them all.

"It seems that Jack has a large amount of antibodies already in his system, much like the rest of his breed, and without a blood sample I won't be able to dictate what his system does, and does not, have protection from," Coco explained.

"Well I'm not sure if a blood sample as he is _now _would be any good," Toriko said slashing out with his right arm, a giant glowing knife-like construct intercepting a lunging claw slash from Dark Jack. "It smells like there's something _else _mixed in there, something I can't pick out."

"Then I'll just have to cover my bases," Coco said as he dropped his turban to the ground, the entirety of his visible skin turning a dark shade of purple, his hair gaining purple highlights, as he held back his right arm. "Poison Virus…" he called out as a lighter purple liquid began to congeal within his hand. Dark Jack made to run straight at him, shooting past Toriko, only for the blue-haired man to catch up to and surpass his speed in a brief moment.

"Five-Hit Nail Punch!" the blue-haired giant bellowed as he struck Dark Jack in the gut with a loud _***POW***_, five bluish nail-shaped lances of energy shooting into the transformed Faunus' body, which folded around the man's massive arm before he was thrown back. While in mid-air, Dark Jack's body bulged backward as though struck _again_, a loud _***POW* *POW* *POW* *POW* **_sounding through the air as the multiple invisible strikes assaulted his body. His claws scraping against the ground as he slowed to a halt, the attack appeared to be largely ineffective, until Dark Jack's cheeks suddenly bulged and he vomited up several mouthfuls of blood onto the ground.

"Hey, watch it with the hard fisting!" Weiss shouted at the blue-haired giant. Off to the side, Yang snickered, Blake rolled her eyes, and Ruby tilted her head while she tried to figure out the joke.

"Sorry!" Toriko apologized.

"Mold Spear!" Coco called out as the globule of poison within his hand formed a small spear with a twisting body just beneath the blade and let it fly from his hand. Dark Jack jumped to the side to dodge, but the spear was faster, spearing him through the shoulder and throwing him to the ground, before the poison was visibly absorbed into his body.

"Hey, watch it with the penetration!" Weiss shouted again, the rest of Team RWBY making the same gestures they did a minute ago, while Glynda palmed her forehead.

"Don't worry, the damage is mostly superficial," Coco assuaged with a wave of his hand, the transformed Faunus swaggering from side to side before angrily shaking his head, narrowing his eyes at the two of them.

"So, how long until the poison takes effect?" Toriko asked as he readied his Fork and Knife.

"Well, I had to curtail the Poison Virus so it'd paralyze him instead of kill him. Taking his molecular immunity to poison into effect, I'd say in less than five minutes, give or take."

"Molecular immunity?"

"Venomous snakes kill up to ninety-four thousand people every year in addition to the millions of other animals in their diet. However, honey badgers and their Faunus counterparts are capable of defending themselves against venomous prey on a molecular level because they evolved on a diet of venomous snakes. In fact, up to twenty-five percent of the animal's omnivorous diet consists of venomous snakes."

"Oh! So honey badgers evolving to withstand snake venom is like being the only person at the party with the stomach to eat extra-hot salsa!" the blue-haired man realized.

"That's… _one_ way of putting it," Coco stated with a sweatdrop before turning his attention back to the transformed Faunus, who had begun slapping himself in the face to stay awake. "Watch out!" he shouted as Dark Jack suddenly lunged at Toriko, right fist drawn back for a downward-arching punch.

"Fork Shield!" Toriko shouted as he threw a barrier across his arm. Dark Jack however snapped out with his tail, the motion twisting his body in mid-air until he was suddenly upside-down, the downward-arching punch suddenly curving under and _around _the man's guard, striking the man's iron-like muscles with a loud _***POW***_. The man skidding back a few inches, what he wasn't expecting was for the delayed strikes to impact his body with a loud _***POW* *POW***_, even when the transformed Faunus' fist was no longer in contact with his body. "Nngh! This guy's a fast learner!"

"Just like the thing you and Zebra fought in Gourmet Pyramid?" Coco asked.

"Yeah, except a lot of energy was wasted. I guess before he turned into this _thing_, Jack was a _kinesthetic _learner," Toriko said as he rubbed his stomach, whereas Dark Jack's arm visibly throbbed and he fell to one knee, tail lying flat across the ground as he panted heavily.

"The way things are now, I guess the Poison Virus will kick in any second now," Coco said before he leaned back to dodge claw-shaped blades through the air. "Or not!"

"Alright! I was afraid this was getting too easy!" Toriko said with a grin as he threw out his arms, sending dozens of forks flying through the air.

"Well, at least he's just dodging them," Glynda sighed as Dark Jack sluggishly dodged the initial barrage. The next barrage however, upon being dodged, perforated a fancy sports car, causing it to explode moments later. "Oh come on, that was on _purpose_!"

"Is it really alright to be poisoning him though?" Blake questioned.

"Don't worry, Coco's a _master _at poison manipulation, with an intimate knowledge of all poisonous chemicals known to man," Ruby responded. "And some known only to dolphins," she added, causing Weiss' stoicism to completely fall away in lieu of the up-and-coming classic WTF face.

**Cue Boku no Hero Academia OST: Just Say Run**

"Toriko! The Poison Virus has almost finished cultivating!" Coco announced as his eyes gleamed.

"Yeah, I can practically _smell _it," Toriko nodded, catching faint traces of adrenaline in the transformed Faunus' perspiration. "However… Our opponent knows that too, and like any living thing backed into a corner by predators, he's going to hit us with everything he's got in a last-ditch effort to survive."

As though to prove them right, Dark Jack began spilling an obscene amount of blood-colored aura into the air, the tyrannous Intimidation bursting from his cells and into three-dimensional space, looming ominously over them as the two roared in tandem.

"Get ready, Coco!" Toriko said as the Intimidation bared its fangs at them. "HRAAAAAAAGH!" he bellowed as a reddish-pink paint-like aura began rising off his body. From it, a massive hannya demon rose matching the height of the surrounding buildings. Its skin was a reddish-pink, its body covered in massive coiling muscles that shifted like tectonic plates, its mouth filled with gleaming sharp fangs, black pointed claws adorning its hands, eyes jet black save for small pinpricks of light, and a wild mane of whitish-pink hair spilling down its back.

"Right, Toriko!" Coco said in turn. "HAAAAAAAAA!" he bellowed as a thick purple miasma-like aura rose from his body. From it, an emaciated traditional Japanese ghost did rise, similar in height to Toriko's own intimidation. Its skin was a necrotic shade of gray covered with speckles of purple running along its arms, pure-silver hair spilling down past its shoulders, its eyes and wailing mouth empty like the darkest voids.

**"RAAAAAAAGHHH!" **Dark Jack and his Intimidation roared in tandem, motes of golden light gathering within the latter's maw until it formed a brightly-glowing light like a miniature sun. The glow reaching its apex, a devastating golden beam of energy was let loose, Toriko's own Intimidation intercepting the beam with its bare hands, the light splashing around it, the blue-haired Bishoku-ya powering through it. Coco's Intimidation on the other hand circled around the side of the beam, wailing as its necrotic hands clamped down on the other Intimidation's maw and slowly forced it closed until its jaw snapped shut and cut off the beam.

"Now! He's open!" Coco said as he mimicked the motion of his own appetite.

"Got it!" Toriko said as he ran up to the transformed Faunus, right arm drawn back. "Seven-Hit… Nail Punch!" he shouted as he struck his opponent in the solar plexus, Dark Jack's Intimidation quickly evaporating as the delayed-force blows assailed his body, throwing him further and further down the street until he flew through a storefront window with a _***CRASH***_.

**END OST**

"WAAAAAAGH! That's Old Man Wong's place!" Ruby screamed when she realized just where Jack had been sent, the sound of shelves and merchandise being destroyed from within causing a knot of despair to form in her stomach, and her wallet to feel lighter. "And he just finished fixing the place up too!" she realized seeing the **Grand Re-Opening **banner hanging up.

"Toriko!" Coco cried in shock.

"My bad, guess I don't know my own strength," the man said scratching his cheek.

"Quick! We need to get in there before Jack-"

_***WHOOOOOOOOM***_

Whatever was about to leave Ruby's lips was swiftly intercepted by a brilliant white light flooding out of the storefront, forcing everyone to shield their eyes as night was briefly turned into day. Unable to look up, the onslaught of light went on for several seconds before slowly dimming, and then going out altogether. There was a profound silence among the group as they wondered _WHAT _just happened, as Dark Jack's overwhelming presence had suddenly disappeared.

"Um… What just happened?" Yang asked, her words piercing the silence as all sound screeched to a grinding halt.

The question on all their minds was answered when the door to **From Dust Till Dawn **creaked open, and a figure stepped out into the open. His attire consisted of a green shirt, gray pants, black sneakers, and a red apron, his right arm completely wrapped in white bandages from fingertip to shoulder. He had lightly-tanned skin, messy white hair whose color rivaled Weiss' own, bandages wrapped around most of his forehead and over his right eye, showing his left which was a striking shade of violet with a vertical scar running above and below through the eyelid.

Dragged behind him by the scruff of his neck was Jack, and to all of their shock, his transformation was largely undone. His skin, which was no longer veiled in shadow, was still covered in the same swirling tattoos as before, only now they were glowing an ominous purple. However, when half the distance between the storefront and them was covered by the bandaged figure, those tattoos disappeared completely, and much to their surprise, the black armor covering his body began to flake away into the wind, similar to when Grimm are killed, leaving completely-unchanged limbs underneath. His horns fell away completely like a deer shedding its antlers, crumbling to dust on the ground before being swept away on the wind, as did his tail which came off like a lizard's.

A few seconds later, and the bandaged figure came to a stop in front of them, still holding Jack by the scruff of his neck. Getting a closer look at him, he was maybe six feet in height, and going by whatever parts of his face were visible, he looked to be around eighteen or so.

"Um… Hi," Ruby grouped nervously as the mood _totally _shifted from the "Super-Hard Optional Boss Fight" vibe it was a second ago, to the "Post-Battle Results Screen" vibe.

"I take it this belongs to you?" the bandaged man asked holding Jack up by the scruff of his neck.

"Um… Yes," Ruby replied.

"Ah, I see then," the man said stroking his chin with his other hand. "Then I guess I need to bill _you _for the window. And the shelves. And the Dust dispensers. As well as the ruined merchandise your friend here just destroyed when he came _flying _in," he listed off, causing Ruby to shrink back with each annotation.

"Uh, actually, that was _my_ bad," Toriko said nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well I hope you're going to cut us a check, because we just got finished renovating after the last incident, and we were only hours away from our grand re-opening, so you can probably imagine just how peeved the old man's going to be now that it has to get pushed back. _Again," _he said leveling a cycloptic violet-eyed stare at the man.

"R-Right. Let me get on that," Toriko said nervously as he began fishing for his checkbook. So used-to was he of hitting things with his Kugi Punch and sending them flying into trees or rocks that he forgot to take into consideration that _buildings _could've been easily damaged by the aftermath of his signature technique too.

"We are _profoundly _sorry for what happened," Ruby apologized as she bowed at the waist.

"As long as you pay for damages, I won't have to hold a grudge," the violet-eyed man replied.

"Hey uh, I know this is sudden, but can we have our friend back?" Yang asked. Jack was completely out cold, and it probably wasn't doing his injuries any good being held by the scruff of his neck like that. His head was hanging forward and he looked completely limp.

"Until the check clears, we're going to need to hold onto this as collateral," he said jostling the unconscious Faunus a bit.

"Now listen here buster!" Yang growled with red eyes as she stomped up to the guy, rolling up her sleeves. "I've got half a mind to-"

"Yang!" Weiss interjected before Yang could knock the man's lights out. "Ahem," she coughed, taking control of the situation before another fight could break out. "If its money that's the issue, I'm sure that all of this can be resolved with a quick financial transaction of the _digital _nature," she said taking out her SDC credit card. The card itself was a dark azure with a lighter blue snow motif, the Schnee family crest on the lower right, while on the upper right was a gold chip. "Rest assured, any damages that have been incurred, the Schnee Dust Company can _easily _cover, and I hope you come to us for any of your Dust-related needs in the foreseeable future."

While Blake rolled her eyes at how the heiress shamelessly advertised her family's signature product, the man in front of her leveled her a look, almost as though he didn't recognize who she was. Gently setting Jack down, he took out his Pocket Scroll and slotted in a card-reading attachment before swiping the heiress' card after putting in a fiscal value. Waiting for several seconds, a _***Beep* **_signaled the transaction's completion, the man in front of him pocketing the device before holding out both Jack and the card for her to take.

"Pleasure doing business with you," the man said as he inclined his head before turning on his heel and walking back into the store.

"The guy seemed pretty nonplussed about what just happened," Yang stated as she adjusted the unconscious Faunus over her shoulder, only to realize that the hole the Faunus' added limb came out of was now right next to her face. _'Hmmm… Not _quite _Buns of Steel-level, but still… Dat ass!' _she thought as she discretely ogled "dat ass".

"Maybe he just had a really long day, and wanted it to end as soon as possible," Blake stated.

"You think we should go back in and explain what happened?" Ruby asked.

"I think it'd be better if we left while the going was good," Weiss said as the bandaged man closed up the shop, leveling a glare at them through the now-destroyed window as he swept up the glass.

"So… Who's hungry?" Toriko asked out of nowhere, sweat drops on the backs of the girls' heads at the man's declaration.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

For obvious reasons, everyone decided to get going while the going was good. Sazh's airship swinging around to pick them up a few minutes later, everyone scrambled in like their lives depended on it before something _else _weird and inexplicable happened. Because for all they knew, their lives very well _could have _depended on their ability to get the f*ck out of Dodge. Wherever the hell _that _was.

Sazh was acting as pilot while Lena was being co-pilot. Glynda had her back against the door to the cockpit, Port and Oobleck staying behind in town to oversee the cleanup of all the stuff that got destroyed. Coco was sitting in the back left seat, Toriko in the back right, while between the two of them was a massive pile of food that went all the way up to the ceiling. Jack on the other hand, sleeping like the dead after having his system flooded with a custom-made neurotoxin, was laid out across the floor on a mat snoring lightly away, his head resting in Yang's lap as she stroked his hair, Weiss sitting across from the blond and looking pensive while Ruby and Blake sat against the side wall.

"So why exactly _did_ Ozpin ask a Gourmet Hunter to deal with something supernatural like… _that_?" Yang asked pointing to what was left of the town square.

"Well… I'm a fortune teller by trade, and in both literal and metaphorical connotations, I'm able to see things in ways other people can't," Coco said as he drank from a bottle of green tea. "Ozpin likely assumed that I'd be able to pick up on something other people would miss, because the subject matter itself is so incredibly obscure."

"When you say you can see things in ways other people can't in both literal and metaphorical connotations, do you mean _that _in literal, or metaphorical connotations?" Blake found herself asking.

"While on the one hand, I have a form of foresight that allows me to tell people's fortunes with an incredibly high accuracy percentile, in the _literal _sense, I have a very high amount of cone cells in my eyes that allow me to see in non-visible spectra of light. This allows me to predict an animal's, or persons, next course of action through use of stimuli that most people can't see, electromagnetic waves in particular," Coco explained.

" . . . Like ice cream cones?" Ruby asked after a few moments.

"No, you dunce!" Weiss snapped causing the girl to wilt. "He's talking about light-receptive cells!"

"So… What do you see in _my _future?" Yang asked.

" . . . Punching. Lots and lots of punching."

_*GAAAAAAASP*_ _"It's like he _knows_ me!"_ the blond whispered in awe.

"_I _could've told you that!" Weiss snapped.

"So what's Toriko doing here then?" Ruby asked as she watched the blue-haired giant continue to stuff his face, much to Weiss' appall.

"I just came here for some seafood," the blue-haired man answered as he proceeded to eat a whole lobster. A _whole _lobster, shell and all. Following that was a wheel of chees. An _entire _wheel of cheese. Then a cabbage. Then a honey-glazed ham. Then-

'_Urp, I think I'm going to be sick,' _Weiss retched as she watched the man eat massive mouthfuls of food that made his cheeks puff out like an overgrown chipmunk.

Seriously, the guy was eating a pile of food bigger than his entire _body_. Sure, she was aware he fought powerful monsters and traversed hazardous terrain to feed the masses rare and unusual Ingredients, thus a high caloric intake was understandable. However, what she was being made to witness, was utterly destroying the image of a charismatic explorer and provider, as she continued to bare witness to the man's gluttonous actions.

"Hey uh… Toriko, sir…" Ruby spoke up to the giant man.

"Yah?" the man replied with a full mouth consisting of half a weapon. _Literally_.

"I uh… I have a question I want to ask," the red-head.

"Go ahed." _*Gulp* _"Ask away."

"That thing you and Coco did towards the end of your fight where you summoned the giant monsters… What _was _that?"

"Our Intimidation?" Toriko asked. "I thought since Jack was your teammate you'd already know about this."

"Yeah, well…" she said fidgeting in her seat. "I… have a hard time bringing it up. For obvious reasons."

"Oh, you saw the business end of it, huh?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I could smell the fear-sweat coming off of you as soon as the topic came up."

"_Smell_?!" Yang gawped.

"Coco has his eyes, I have my nose," Toriko answered as said nose twitched. "As for what the three of us used, that would be our Intimidation."

"Hey, I can be intimidating too, but it doesn't mean I summon giant _monsters_. Not unless you count _this _bad boy," she said reaching for her scythe.

"NO!" the rest of Team RWBY shouted. Within that _very _enclosed space. Where just _one _mishap with a high-powered sniper rifle could send them plummeting to the ground and _die_.

"I think he meant Intimidation with a _capital _I," Glynda interjected. "Also, please don't discharge your weapon indoors, Ms. Rose."

"Oh come on, that was _one _time!"

" . . . I don't remember hearing about that," Gynda said narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Uhhhhhhh… SO!" Ruby said turning back to Coco. "What was this about Intimidation with a capital I?"

"Well," Coco hummed as he drank his tea. "It all comes down to energy, I suppose. Hunters and Huntresses harness the powers of their souls themselves in the form of Aura, and the deepest expression of that power is their Semblance. However, Aura is merely the power of the spirit. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the power of the body, or _Appetite Energy_, which is derived from the cells' in the body's overwhelming hunger and desire to devour prey. When this energy is properly harnessed, it can be emitted outside the body and shaped for various purposes," he said holding up his hand, a pinprick of golden light burning to life before the turban-wearing man allowed it to flicker out. "Appetite Energy is highly versatile, and depending on how it's shaped, can have offensive, defensive, or even supplementary applications, like being emitted from the body to form semi-solid weapons and instruments like Toriko's Forks or Knives."

"Appetite Energy can also be directly infused into particular body parts, increasing their strength and even generating beneficial mutations. For example, my sense of smell can surpass those of most Faunus breeds, and the strength of my muscles exceeds their cross-sectional strength by a large margin. Coco on the other hand can see in non-visible spectra, something most Faunus are capable of while Humans are not, and he's also able to generate poison within his body," Toriko then went on to add as he flexed the powerful muscles in his arm.

"If Appetite Energy is really that powerful, then why am I only hearing about it now?" Yang asked. Hearing that explanation, the idea came to mind that maybe she could weaponized her _hair_ for devastating effects, or just whenever her hands were occupied with other things.

"Because Appetite Energy is derivative of a creature's hunger, or even ravenousness," Coco answered. "Huntsmen and Huntresses seek to protect those around them, but more often than not, this places them in an ennui where they become _satisfied _with a set level of power and only seek to improve up to a certain point. This mindset is counterintuitive of the predatory stance required to harness the energy within your body's cells, which dictates that you must look out for _yourself _instead of others. Hunters are usually of the vein that it's acceptable to throw your lives away for a single person, when it would be more practical to cut your losses."

"Hey, if you're saving someone's life, then it _isn't _just throwing your life away!" Ruby argued.

"Maybe, but then what becomes of all the time and effort that went into training you? What about the resources that went into bringing you up to this point? What happens to the people in the future you _could have _saved if you throw away all of that for a single person in the present?" Coco asked. "Predators are always moving toward their next meal, and it's because of the sheer difference in mindset that so few people use both body _and _spirit. However, those that use _both _forms of energy rarely if ever surpass those who put in the effort to _specialize _in a single form of energy. It's happened before, but not since Acacia who had achieved both physical and spiritual enlightenment over the course of his life."

"So where do the giant monsters come in?" Blake asked.

"What you saw the three of us use is essentially the _Semblance _of our body's cells, our Appetite _Demons_," Toriko said before stuffing a whole honey-glazed ham into his mouth and sucking the meat from the bone. "Naturally, all living beings possess _some _form of Appetite Energy, but very few learn to actually _weaponized _that power. When the cells of a predator have matured to a certain point, Appetite Demons can be projected by their hosts in the form of grotesque monsters as a form of Intimidation. However, the more the cells grow and develop, the stronger these manifestations become, to the point where they can end up gaining a will of their own. I'm not sure whether that's literal or a metaphor, but there _have _been stories where Appetite Demons have become separate sentient entities from within their hosts and were able to exist outside the host body for a certain amount of time."

"Like a set of fingerprints, no two Appetite Demons are the same, nor do they have any common traits or features among them. Each one manifests in diverse and unique forms that can only be described as something akin to monsters, ghosts, or demons, since from the perspective of a prey animal, predators may as well be just that. Monsters," Coco stated. "The gist of it is that like the Semblance of the spirit, Appetite Demons are the embodiment of their host's _appetites_, and are born from their hosts' desire for delicious food. As a consequence, those able to release the power of their _appetite _have a strong gluttonous desire for delicious food, something they can crave so intensely that some Bishoku-ya have gone wild when in the presence of something truly delicious. _Especially _food that takes decades or even _centuries _to properly cultivate in a natural environment, which possess a strong, _unprecedented _flavor that can't be artificially manufactured."

At this point, everyone stared wide-eyed at Toriko, who had stopped mid-bite of an apple with a large trail of drool spilling out the side of his mouth and down his chin. And it wasn't just a trickle either, the amount of drool spilling out of his mouth could fill a _bucket_, much to some of their shock, awe, and/or horror as applicable. The man had spaced out for several seconds before he reached up and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Were you saying something? I was thinking about Silver Apple pie," the blue-haired glutton said as he audibly sucked in more saliva before it could escape.

"As I was saying," Coco said completely nonplussed by the sight. "While Appetite Energy _is _incredibly versatile, other than needing the correct mindset for it that you have to find for _yourself_, Appetite Energy's weakness is that its power is tied directly to the individual's cells. If an individual isn't properly fed, they won't be able to use any of their Appetite Energy in any significant capacity, similar to how a heartbroken Huntsmen can't properly use their Aura because their spirits have become weary. From what I can tell, Jack had been running around and fighting non-stop for several hours, so in addition to the strain that his sudden transformation had placed on his body, his Appetite Demon had lost most of its kick by the time we got to him."

"So it was just a matter of tiring him out then," Weiss said as she took Jack's hand in her own, stroking the back of it with her thumb. A few seconds later she looked up to see Yang grinning like the cat who ate the canary, Weiss looking down at the gesture before flushing. "I-It's not like I _like _him or anything! I'm just making sure he's relaxed, is all!"

"You actually have the right idea. His electromagnetic waves are less in-flux than they were a few minutes ago," Coco stated.

'_Is it just me, or has that pile of food not gotten any smaller?' _Glynda questioned as she watched Toriko continue to eat.

"Hey guys, I can see Beacon from here," Blake said looking out the window. The airship banking to the left, Team RWBY looked out the window to see Beacon's glittering fluorescent lights in the distance, a _literal _light in the darkness.

"It really is beautiful, isn't it?" Weiss asked, the lights of Beacon sparkling like jewels to her weary eyes.

"Whoever thought I'd be happy to go _back _to school," Yang said as home approached in the distance.

"Team… Mission accomplished," Ruby sighed tiredly as she slumped back in her seat, as did the rest of Team RWBBY.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**And there you have it, Team RWBY+1's first official mission. I mixed a bit of ****Final Fantasy XIII-2**** into it with the "Ruby of Grief", and I managed to bring in the Circle of Man who hadn't been seen since the second chapter of this story. Or at least not seen **_**directly**_**.**

**As for Toriko and Coco coming in, I've left _plenty _of references in both the narrative and dialogue to hint that this was coming. Then again, this _is _a multi-crossover, so unlike most stories that _strictly _adhere to a 2 IP limit, this one doesn't have the same degree of "predictability". That _is _why I've started writing multi-crossovers as of late.**

**Anyhow, even though there isn't a "To be continued…" prompt at the end there, this mini-arc is still ongoing. I didn't PLAN on making their first mission into an arc, but when I wrote down "Team… Mission accomplished," for Ruby's dialogue, I just couldn't help but cut things off here, and save the exposition for the next chapter.**

**I hope you leave lots of Reviews for this chapter. I'm also hoping after the next is done and I complete this arc, that I can begin updating the other works of mine that've been put on the backburner. It's truly a testament to **_**some **_**people's patience that they don't outright demand (read: threaten) that I continue, but instead accept my reasons for the delays.**

**Seriously, what the fuck is **_**wrong **_**with people, threatening to inflict bodily harm on writers who don't do what's essentially a **_**hobby**_**. Maybe you could get away with that sort of thing on **** since you're **_**paying **_**for their services, albeit indirectly, but still… Dudes. Get a grip, will you? There's no need for death threats.**

**Anyway, hope to see you all again next-chapter.**


	32. Rest for the Weary

**NeoNazo356: Okay, we've got a few good Reviews asked last-chapter, so let's get to the responding. Now guest-starring...  
**

Linkonpark100: Adding FFXIII and Overwatch to the crossovers? I don't suppose you could add Bionicle in there.

**NeoNazo356: Yes, in case it hasn't been made obvious enough during the Forever Fall Arc, or even in this one where Jack talked about his religious beliefs, I am in fact adding Final Fantasy 13 to the mix. The biggest reason is their Transforming weapons which when applicable (like Lightning's Gun-Blade, Sazh's Dual Revolvers/Rifle, or Fang's Double-Ended Spear/Three-Part Staff) fit right in alongside weapons like Ruby's Crescent Rose, Yang's Ember Celica, and Blake's Gambol Shroud. Final Fantasy 7, while more-iconic for the franchise (and has a BRILLIANTLY-made machinima courtesy of TeamFourStar), is fiction-within-the-fiction as some of you might recall. Another IMPORTANT reason I'm mixing Final Fantasy 13 into Remnant is because the relationship between the people of Cocoon and Pulse are like the relations between the Humans and Faunus of Remnant; one side vastly outnumbering the other and treating them with scorn from the lofty view of their ivory palaces. ALSO! As said by Jack before, RELIGION is part of the reason for the fighting between Humans and Faunus, because as opposed man being "born from dust", Faunus widely believe in the Pulsian faith where Etro shed her blood out of loneliness and that blood was then shaped into all mankind. Another important thing is that when Etro gave man their "Heart" (which became their Soul), that heart came from Chaos, and that Chaos is my interpretation of where Semblance comes from, since the definition of Semblance itself is- **"the outward appearance or apparent form of something, especially when the reality is different." **By that logic, similar to Ability Users in Toaru Kagaku no Reirugan/Certain Scientific Railgun, those with Semblance are able to "change the rules" of reality around them.  
Overwatch is a crossover I began contemplating only recently to tell the truth, but it's still early-enough in the story that I'm able to begin mixing them in without major retconning to the narrative. In fact I have plans to blend Overwatch into the story as far as the Vytal Festival and beyond. If you look at the sheer DIVERSITY of the characters, you can easily see them blending into the World of Remnant where everyone strives for "unity through individuality".** **That being said, there will be some fundamental changes to the Overwatch narrative itself, but I hope you enjoy the changes being made.  
As for Bionicle... Asking for a crossover like that is a bit unreasonable.**** From what I can guess from an analytical standpoint, Bionicle are largely Iron or Steel-Based lifeforms, similar to how Humans are Carbon-Based. Other examples I know off the top of my heard are that Petrosapiens from ****Ben 10**** are Silicon-Based, and the Crystal Gems from ****Steven Universe**** are a diverse mix of Aluminum Oxide, Chromium, and dozens of other miscellaneous elements that comprise gemstones. So no, I don't have any plans to put Bionicle in there. That _everything _is mechanical in nature hints at a completely different evolutionary chain.  
Wow, that one was a doozie. Onto the next one!  
**

FallenSymphony963: While I hate myself for knowing nothing about Toriko, reading this always helps me understand more of the series. Besides that, your quality and content continue you surpass the stars. You easily have one of the most expansive and well-written stories on this site. I'm so glad I got the chance to find it and hope it continues for quite some time.

**NeoNazo356: Thank you for the compliments. I think the story comes off as "expansive" because I've made the effort to incorporate more than two IP into the story. There is a HUGE list of crossovers I've put into this story, and with the interconnecting web of stuff STILL to come, I doubt there'd be anything like it unless someone decided to blatantly plagiarize my work.  
As for the "well-written" part, my more-recent stories wouldn't be as good as they are now without the help of my beta, **Spaceman**, who I soundboard ideas with to iron out the kinks. It also helps that I've been at this for a while, though you might not know that if you ONLY look at my earliest works.  
On another note, I highly recommend reading the Toriko manga because other then anime-exclusive Filler, it's completely identical to the manga; that and the narrative is nearing its final stages, and shit's getting even crazier than the _Naruto_ ending. I didn't think that was even possible with how CRAAAZY things got there at the end, but the sheer _scope _of power being thrown around is DBZ worthy.  
**

White Tiger of Kumo12: Dude all I'm asking is you update consistently on a schedule and update young justice hunter

**NeoNazo356: I never named any names. I wasn't talking about anyone in particular. Also, people HAVE threatened me before, and common to popular belief, it isn't "flattering".  
**

God Emperor Of GAR-Halla: Will Acacia show up? Will Salem be one of the girls that smothered Acacia's face with lipstick and hickeys when he comes to frose? That would be funny if Salem used to be one of Acacia's bitches back in the day and she's terrified of his NEO demon in the modern day. XD!

**NeoNazo356: In the present narrative, while not PRESENTLY stated, Acacia is a historical figure who became the impetus for the "Gourmet Age". The "Gourmet Age" took place prior to the Great War, and thus initially only the nobility were able to enjoy rare and delicious foods on he taxpayer dollar. However, after the Great War passed, much like in real life when the royal chefs no longer had jobs with the fall of the monarchy, they began to open up restaurants.****  
****As for SALEM being one of Acacia's "bitches"... I don't know enough about her to say for sure, but I would assume from what little I know of her, she wouldn't shamelessly throw herself at him. As for your other statement, I'm fairly certain she WOULD be terrified of Neo, given what he did to the Eight Kings whose Capture Levels range from "as low as" 6200 to as high as 6950. And that's compared to GOD who as an apex predator of the world has an unprecedented Capture Level of 10,000.  
**

guisniperman: ...Wonder what was the last place Jake needed to go to appease those dead girls. I almost expected something along the lines of "OMG he killed Kenny!" when that first kid died. Lena! :) Also Toriko and Coco finally make an appearance. A bit late to the party thought.

**NeoNazo356: In all likelihood it would've been another CoM bunker, or another den of racists, but Jack had gotten enough done. As for the Kenny bit, that would've been too easy; plus I think that joke already, and on top of that it's been done-to-death. As for Toriko &amp; Coco being late, nothing is EVER straightforward with anime protagonists. Hell, when Toriko LITERALLY goes out to get groceries, he'll have to fight one giant monster after another. And then he'll eat them. If he doesn't he'll use Knocking on them and leave them where they are because he doesn't kill something unless he's going to eat it.  
**

KitsuneDragon: A very action packed chapter, nicely done. You got a lot of references in there and from what I can think of from the imagery you provided for Jack's appetite demon it reminds of Incursio from Akame ga Kill! I also caught the lilo and stitch reference when they were observing Jack from afar at one point.  
It would have really helped if I was more into Toriko, but I'm not but either way it was pretty cool to see Toriko and Coco show up.

**NeoNazo356: Jack's Appetite Demon isn't "Incursio" per-se, but the "Danger Beast Tyrant" whose flesh and blood was rendered INTO Incursio. That being said, Jack wont' have the power OF Incursio, and whether he develops any of the powers of the Tyrant itself depends on whether or not he'll be able to acquire any of the Ingredients from Acacia's Full Course, which is a major part of the later narrative of Toriko.  
As for the Lilo &amp; Stitch, yeah, that was a reference I wanted to make and I'm glad someone caught that; WOW that movie feels forever ago. As for your familiarity with Toriko, it's nearing its end, and I highly recommend it.  
I thank you for your long-standing support.  
**

**Anyway, I think that's enough Review-answering for one... day? Eh, whatever. Here's the conclusion to the "Ruby of Grief" arc; even though I didn't give it that prefix.  
**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Cue Final Fantasy XIII OST - Promised Eternity**

"Ugh… Anyone get the number on the thing that hit me?" Jack groaned as he came to, only to see blackness all around. "What the hell?"

In all directions there was only darkness. It was neither worm nor cold, it was simply… _there_. There was no wind, no sound, other than that of his own words. Kneeling down, Jack shifted his feet before reaching forward with his fingers, only to feel empty space at the end of his touch beyond the soles of his feet.

"No, seriously, what the hell? Where the heck am I?" he asked looking around. Most-everything after touching the Ruby of Grief was a huge blank interspersed by bouts of gore and violence that _reaaaaally _stroked his murder-boner. _'Great, now I can't get my role in Sengoku Rendezvous out of my head,'_ he thought thinking back to one of his earlier… _escapades, _where his friend and co-star also insisted on being his fluffer off-camera. _'I hope Rushia was satisfied with my performance, because I do _not _intend on doing that sort of thing again. I'll still have _sex _again, I just won't do it on _camera _ever again_,' he amended. Those so-called "artists" and their "vision" were nothing but a bunch of horny _voyeurs _when they insisted on re-taking certain scenes over and over and _over _again. " . . . I _really _need to stop my mind from going to all those weird places," he thought as he adjusted his pants.

_**"Thank… you…"**_

"Who's there?"

He didn't flinch at the voice that came from nowhere, because deep down, he knew that he wouldn't be harmed. He wasn't an empath like Luca was, but he could just _feel _that he was safe here. Wherever _here _was.

_**"Thank you… for freeing us… from our torment…"**_

Looking behind him, his eyes momentarily widened as he came face to face with thirteen ethereal maidens, hewn in crystal of varying colors. Some had tails, some had added ears, a few had both, and some had horns. The youngest was maybe a small child ten years of age, the eldest a woman past her thirties. They didn't seem to be wearing any kind of garb, but the contours of their bodies were perfectly smooth in their stead.

"You're welcome," Jack answered. "I'm just sorry… that I couldn't do anything sooner," he said, instinctively knowing who these women were.

_**"****There's nothing to apologize for," **_one of the crystal maidens said stepping forward. _**"If anything, **_**we **_**should be apologizing to **_**you**_**."**_

_**"****In the throes of despair, we forced our burdens, our regrets, and our darkness upon you. We turned you into something you were not out of pure selfishness," **_another spoke up.

"What? A bloodthirsty monster?" Jack asked with a roll of his wrist. "I honestly don't think anything really changed. My outside just matched my insides, is all."

"_**No, that isn't true,"**_ the oldest of the group said stepping forward. _**"When you reached out to us… we reached out to you in turn. So we know… We know that deep down you hate yourself for not being able to save them, even though there's nothing you could've done,"**_ she said causing him to flinch.

"_**Even if it hurts, even if it makes the memory of your loved ones slip away, you need to let go of that moment in time, and move forward."**_

"What if I _don't _wanna forget!? What if I'm perfectly fine with the way things are now?!" Jack snapped back. "Even if it hurts… even if it tears me up in side… As long as I never forget them, I'm _fine _with a little suffering!" he raged, his scars burning like hot coals as he remembered his mother's face, and the bulge in her belly, with perfect clarity.

_**"That isn't what they'd want. Not your mother, and not your sister-to-be."**_

_**"They wouldn't want to become the shackles that would bind you in sorrow."**_

_**"They would want you to savor the life you kept, in exchange for theirs."**_

_**"Don't live for their sake. Live for your own. It's the prerogative of the living to be selfish."**_

"I already _am _selfish! Don't talk down to me like you know everything about me!"

_**"****But we **_**do **_**know you, in the same way that you know us."**_

_**"****What happened nearly a decade ago torments you."**_

_**"****Even in happiness, you languish in despair."**_

_**"You drown yourself in your vices to forget."**_

_**"****For so long you've languished in the winters of sorrow."**_

_**"****But now… Now, you need to embrace the cradle of spring."**_

"What if I don't want to? What if… What if I don't deserve it?" Jack choked out as the weight of what what happened nearly a decade ago bore down on him. "If I'd fought harder… Even if I'd died instead… The two of them might still be alive, and I wouldn't have to suffer like this!"

_**"****Jack, please don't cry," **_the smallest of the crystal maidens said as she walked up to him. _**"Do you think that they would be happy if you'd died?" **_she asked as she wrapped her small arms around his waist and nuzzled his stomach.

"You… You're so young…" Jack realized as he got down on his knees, slowly stroking her crystal hair, which was neither hot nor cool to the touch. "You… You didn't get to live a full life. You could've become anything you wanted, so how… How can you still smile the way you do?"

_**"****Because… When I'm born again, I know that there will be kind people like you waiting for me," **_she said with a glowing smile.

"Dammit… You were so young…" Jack cursed as he wrapped his arms around her. "It isn't fair… IT ISN'T FAIR!" he cried out as he clutched his chest, feeling the walls around his heart beginning to break.

_***Crick***_

The tenuous front he'd held up for so long beginning to fail, the cracks widened and spread, tears leaking out the corners of his eyes as true pain constricted his heart without limit.

**_*Cri-Cri-Crack*_**

One by one, every tragedy, every _atrocity _he'd borne witness to, began to bubble up from the depths of his soul. The walls around his heart, once as strong as steel, became brittle as glass.

_***Cra-Cra-Cra-Cra-Cra-Cra-Cra-Cra-Crack* **_

The barrier between the past and the present, strained to the breaking point, finally shattered into a million pieces.

_***CRAASH***_

As all the world's evil he'd seen, fought, and failed to stem washed across his psyche like a tide of black mud, an anguished wail tore past his throat into the darkness around him. Tears now openly streaming down his face, he cried in despair for what felt like hours as all the feelings he'd been bottling up gushed forth, and it was only after he'd exhausted himself in body, mind, and soul, that he finally ran out of energy. Dropping to his knees as the last drop of energy was spent, the deceased child in his arms patted his back, a serene smile on hers and the other crystal maidens' faces as the shackles trapping him in the past began to erode away. It was only after the last of his tears fell that the crystal maidens spoke again.

_**"****It's time for us to go now. Thank you, for saving our souls."**_

"You're welcome, and… good luck in your next life," Jack said wiping his tears.

The youngest maiden nodding her head, she stepped back into the embrace of another, the thirteen maidens joining hands as they began to glow radiantly, their crystalline forms flaking away like sand in the wind. Jack raised his hands before him, scrunching his brow before a mote of darkness gathered between his palms. Clasping his hands around the darkened knot, swirling purple tattoos began to snake their way in arcane patterns across his forearms, his lengthened mane of monochrome hair billowing in the wind behind him.

"Etro… Queen of Nothing… Goddess of Death… I commit these souls to you, unburdened by Focus, and wish their Hearts safe passage through the Chaos. May their stay in Valhalla be brief, until they are ready to be born anew. So says I, your child born from blood spilled in loneliness," he prayed somberly with a small smile on his face. The crystalline dust washing over him as the crystal maidens disappeared, his body briefly glowed with a prismatic silver light, a reassuring warmth filling him down to his bones, the tattoos on his arms disappearing.

The world around him rumbling, a brilliant light appeared in the distance, like a light at the end of the tunnel. A familiar warmth washing over him, a smile tugged at Jack's cheeks, and he began to move forward. As he did however, he suddenly stopped, before looking down at his hand sensing a weight that wasn't there before. Opening his palm, he tilted his head a little in surprise.

Resting lightly in his palm was a crystal tear. It was light, lighter than any sort of gemstone he'd handled in the past, as though it were made of… _something else. _Its surface was covered with dozens, maybe _hundreds _of facets, rendering it almost perfectly smooth to the touch. The tear shape itself was slightly flattened, the kind of thing you'd make into a necklace. It was a perfect shade of azure, but transparent when held to the eye, the glowing light at the end of the tunnel capture din perfect clarity.

While the word "beautiful" is the only one that could describe it, somehow, that one little word didn't seem to be enough. Maybe no word _ever _could.

"I wonder…" he said looking down at the crystal tear in his hand. "Will this still be with me when I wake?" he asked, before wrapping his fingers tightly around it and walking into the light.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hey guys, Jack's been crying for the last fifteen minutes," Yang said worriedly as tears cascaded down Jack's cheeks. "Should we be worried?"

"Eh, the guy might just be purging some of the poisonous fluid from his systems," Toriko shrugged as he downed a whole thermos of soup in one gulp. "Sea turtles' _crying _while they lay their eggs is actually them expelling salt from their own bodies, so who's to say that Jack's Gourmet Cells don't let him do that with any life-threatening pathogens?"

"Gourmet Cells?" Ruby asked with a raised brow.

"Gourmet Cells?! I thought those were a myth!" Weiss gawped.

"What are Gourmet Cells?" Yang asked turning to her partner.

"Don't look at me, I thought those were a myth too," Blake shrugged.

"Well I'm sure you can ask Jack about that later," Glynda commented from the front. "Right now we should be focused on getting you all back to Beacon before something _else_ happens. I've watched too many teams disappear because they got complacent after a mission."

"Don't worry about a thing, Glynda. As far as I can see, we're all in the clear," Coco replied.

"He's never been wrong before," Toriko shrugged, everyone deciding to go back to enjoying the silence. Apart from Toriko stuffing his face with food at least.

**Cue: Final Fantasy XIII OST - The Promise**

"So… Do you think we did it?" Ruby wondered aloud after a few minutes. "Do you think we laid those souls to rest?"

"Where'd _that _question come from?" Yang asked. Ruby was usually so focused on guns, or pastries, or anything without a pulse, that it was just so _alien _for the younger girl to be concerned with anything of the _spiritual _nature.

"Well I mean… That Crimson Orb only appeared because someone had a regret so strong it stayed behind even in death, so I can't help but wonder… Did we actually manage to help those people?" she asked.

"I'm sure we did," Weiss said giving the younger girl a small smile.

"But what if we stopped Jack before he _could_?" the scythe-wielder asked worriedly. "What if all those dead people in that orb are still suffering because of us?"

"If they're still suffering, it's their _own _fault for not being able to let go," Weiss then huffed.

"Maybe if whatever Humans killed them weren't such assholes, they wouldn't be dead in the _first _place," Yang growled.

"How do you know it was _Humans _that killed him?" the heiress snapped back.

"Because Humans are racist dicks when it comes to non-Humans," the blond bit back.

"Please don't fight," Coco pleaded. "You're going to agitate your friend there."

"Yeah. And it's ruining my appetite," Toriko huffed, even as he downed a whole fish, his appetite wholly intact.

"Um… guys?" Blake said looking down at the Faunus. "Jack is glowing. Why is he _glowing_?" she asked causing the others to look down at him, his body covered in a prismatic silver light, filling the cabin with an unfamiliar, but soothing, warmth.

"What's happening _now_?!" Weiss asked as she worriedly clutched at Jack's hand. A moment later, the light intensified, and motes of prismatic silver light began to leap out of his chest.

"What… What _are _those?" Ruby said in awe as the orbs of silver light continued to flutter out of Jack's mortal form.

"I think… I _believe_, that those might be the souls which have been saved," Glynda said, before taking out her Scroll to get pictures if only so Dr. Oobleck wouldn't whine about her not recording _another _unrecorded supernatural phenomena.

"So then… we really _did _save them?" Ruby asked as her eyes sparkled as she reached out to touch one, only for a calloused hand to reach up and grab her wrist. "EYAAAAH!" she shrieked.

"Jack!?" Yang cried as the Faunus grabbed her sister, only to tilt her head in confusion seeing he was still unconscious.

"Hey Coco, I thought you said you hit him with your Poison Virus and he was completely paralyzed," Toriko hummed.

"I _did_. He shouldn't even be able to _move_, but he _is_," the turban-wearing man replied.

"Maybe he doesn't want you _touching _these things," Weiss said lowering Ruby's hand, Jack's own slackening before dropping to his side.

"It's getting a little _cramped _in here," Blake stated as thirteen prismatic silver orbs of light floated around.

"Are they _stuck_?" Ruby asked. "Oh my gosh! What if they get stuck in purgatory because we didn't do something right!? I don't _want _to get haunted for the rest of my life!"

"Maybe they just need the door opened," Toriko said as he reached over and slid the door open. Before Glynda could berate the man for opening the door of a mid-air airship, the thirteen lights began to spill out into the night sky, a tinkling sound like bells sounding through the air as they flew up into the sky, before disappearing entirely. "Nailed it," the man replied as he ate a whole set of ribs before spitting the bones out the now-open door.

"So…" Yang said changing the topic. "How long is Jack going to be like this?" she asked as she lifted one of his hands, only for it to limply drop like a wet noodle.

"A few hours, a day at most," Coco answered. "If I'd given him a lethal dosage, my Poison Virus would've left him in a near-death state. However, since I converted it into a paralytic agent, the timetable should vary."

"Alright then… I'll let it go since you didn't damage the merchandise _too _badly," she said as she brushed some hair out of Jack's face. "Man, this really grew _out_, didn't it?" she asked aloud as she held up a loch of his mane, its length going down to his butt.

"Hey, maybe the two of you can be big-hair buddies," Ruby said with a smile.

"If Jack goes on a rampage whenever someone messes with his do, I'm moving out," Blake said with a straight face.

"Ditto," Weiss replied with a flat expression. _One _person whose "rage button" was their hair was enough. She didn't need _two _in her life. In Winter's own words, something like that would "constitute a security risk". Or something.

**END OST**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

As soon as the group had landed at the Beacon airfield, there was an ambulance waiting for them to take Jack to the hospital. Again. Jack wasn't in any _immediate _danger, so that was good, but that still left the question of who was going to go to the hospital with him, and who was going to go up to Ozpin's office and explain just what had happened when things turned pear-shaped.

"As much as I want to be there for Jack, as team leader, I need to take responsibility and tell Ozpin how things degraded the way they did," Ruby stated, trying to sound smart for Weiss' sake.

"So then how do we decide who goes with Jack and who doesn't?" Yang asked. Even though Jack wasn't in any _immediate _danger, the paramedics were still telling them to hurry up so they could go. _'We probably should've sorted this out on the flight home.'_

"We could draw _straws_," Blake suggested.

"Here. You can use mine," Toriko said fishing a fistful of straws out of his pocket.

" . . . Okay I'll be the one to ask. Why do you have so many straws in your pocket?" Weiss asked as she and the others stared at him in shock.

"In case there's a _straw _emergency," the blue-haired giant replied easily.

" . . . Alright then…" Weiss said accepting the offered straws. Ruby fished a multi-tool out of her pocket and cut one of the straws short, before putting them in her hand and holding them out.

"Alright girls, short straw goes with Jack, long straws go with me to Ozpin," Ruby said establishing the rules. Weiss and Yang nodded while Blake looked completely neutral, the three each taking a straw after Ruby had shuffled them. After a three-count, the straws were pulled, Weiss and Yang comparing their straws, before realizing it was _Blake _who drew the short one instead.

"Uh…" the raven-haired girl _uh-_ed nervously.

"Well, that settles that. C'mon Team, let's get going," Ruby said pushing Blake into the ambulance before runnning off towards Ozpin's, the others following behind Glynda at a more-sedate pace.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**One debriefing later…**

"So yeah… Things kinda escalated from there," Ruby finished explaining to Ozpin over mugs of hot chocolate, which the man was gracious enough to offer after seeing their tired-looking faces.

"I see," the man said as he laced his fingers together, his mind awash with thought. Regarding the Crimson Orb, that was _definitely _an aspect of the Pulsian faith made real, and that had very _staggering _repercussions on the real world if more of their somewhat-outlandish myths _also _proved to be real.

It also took him a few moments to realize how _racist _it was for him to call the Faunus' belief system "outlandish", even though he put a "somewhat" prefix in front of it. Suffice it to say, someone on a hair-trigger like Jack would go _ballistic _if he ever found out he thought those things.

What compounded the problem even further was there were _no experts _in Vale to consult on this matter. During the last war, priests, shamans, medics, women, and even _children _were attacked and slaughtered without discrimination. As a consequence, after the war pretty much _all _of their religious hierarchy committed a mass exodus to the safety of the lands they were ceded, in addition to the bulk of their nomadic tribes originally scattered across the globe.

Located to the southeast of Mistral, the waters surrounding Menagerie were… Let's just say "temperamental" would've been putting it _lightly_.

Surrounded by whirlpools and plagued by hurricane-force winds year-round, excluding those of the Grand Line, the waters around Menagerie were some of the most dangerous in the "Human World", making travel between it and the Four Kingdoms both rare and infrequent. To Humans who were used to the comfort of their walled cities which they traipsed around with impunity, obstacles like this which created that kind of isolationism would've made them consider Menagerie the kind of prison it was _intended _to be. However, that couldn't be any further from the truth.

Similar to the Nords of Skyrim, the Faunus which called Menagerie their home were almost entirely self-sufficient. Having spent countless generations before the Faunus Rights Revolution living out in the Frontier away from the Four Kingdoms, moving from place to place as the situation _-and the seasons-_ dictated, they were more than prepared to turn what most would've considered "inhospitable terrain" into their own paradise free of Human prejudice. Since the last war was practically _genocide _for them, anything that would benefit _Human _society while continuing to leave their Faunus brethren in the dust would hold no interest for them. Especially since talks of religion were half the reason for the last war happened in the _first _place.

Suffice it to say, unless he could convince a priest or a shaman of the Pulsian faith to leave the safety of their domain to come back to Vale, where they would more-than-likely become "leashed" to the command of the same Councils which orchestrated the outright _purge _of their kind from the Four Kingdoms nearly two decades prior, they were going to remain completely in the dark as fable became fact.

_'And it isn't like I can simply call them over the CCT__,' _the silver-haired man thought with a sigh. Atlas contributed some of the more _devout_ soldiers to the complete annihilation of the Faunus "plague" during the last war. As such, when the war ended in a drawn-out stalemate as opposed to an effortless victory for Humankind, they made little to no effort to bridge the gap that existed between the two races. Compounded with how the modern-day Atlas had a complete monopoly over the non-standard hardware that allowed the Cross Continental Transit to reach people "half the world" away, even _if _the Faunus of Menagerie wanted to strengthen their ties with the rest of the world, unless Atlas gave their "blessing", it was simply never going to happen. "Coco, do you have any comment?" he asked leaving his thoughts on the backburner.

"No, it happened pretty much as she said," Coco returned as a shrug. "Or at least the part we were _there _for anyway."

"You should probably have more food sent up to their room for when Jack recovers. Why, I remember the time my arm got blown off in Ice Hell, I ate almost _non-stop _for two months until it grew back," the blue-haired giant grinned as he rubbed his left shoulder.

"Wait, _grew back_! What kind of food does _that_?!" Yang gawped, rubbing her right arm for whatever reason.

"Don't get your hopes up," Coco interjected. "It was an exceedingly rare Ingredient, and I doubt your body would have the constitution to _handle _it."

"Why _not_?" Yang huffed.

"Since you didn't know about Appetite Energy and thought Gourmet Cells were just a myth, the likelihood of your body's cells having evolved into _Gourmet Cells_ is incredibly low, and compatibility _with _Gourmet Cells is essential for a Revival Seed to work," Coco answered. "That and the average time to regrow a limb is twenty years. Toriko's the rare exception where it only took _two _years, although the process practically killed him."

"On the upside, it _literally _became my job to eat all day, every day," the blue-haired giant grinned.

"Isn't that your job _every _day?" Coco chuckled.

"I will die as I lived. Stuffing my face with delicious food," Toriko said wiping drool from his chin.

"I'm sure you will," Glynda groaned as she rolled her eyes. Watching the man stuff his face with so much food had made her stomach turn, and what was _worse_, the man's stomach hadn't distended in the slightest. _'Where does he _put _it all_?_' _she asked herself. A single cinnamon bun and it goes straight to her hips, but Toriko ate enough food that it'd put an ordinary man in the hospital, yet he _still _looked like he could eat a full-course meal. Or twenty.

Realizing she was staring at his rippling muscles as they pressed against his clothes with every movement, she tore her gaze away. At that moment, Jack's words about her repressed sexuality and how it was causing underlying stress rang in the back of her head. _'Maybe I should take some time off, go to a day spa or something.'_

_***Be-be-beep*Be-be-beep***_

_***Be-be-beep*Be-be-beep***_

"I should probably get this," Ruby said seeing the Caller ID. "Hey Blake. What's the sitch over with Jack?"

"Not too good," the girl confessed. "Between his transformation, the beating he took from Toriko, and Coco's neurotoxin, he's… in pretty bad shape."

"Is he going to be alright?" Weiss asked worriedly.

"He'll be fine, but he needs to go in for surgery."

"_Again_?" Yang gawped.

"Well, why're you calling _me_?" Ruby asked.

"Jack isn't lucid enough to give consent, so Dr. Ziegler needs your electronic signature before she can start."

"Who's Dr. Ziegler?" Ruby asked.

"Only one of the _best _medical practitioners in all of Atlas," Weiss said with crossed arms. "Trust me, if _she's _the one holding the knife he's going to be under, you have nothing to worry about."

"Hold up, if she's the best doctor in Atlas, what's she doing in Vale?" Yang asked.

"Dr. Ziegler was in Vale for a medical conference concerning those who approached the Crimson Orb too carelessly," Ozpin answered. "She's also an old friend of mine, so I made arrangements for her to be brought here in case any _special _form of medical attention was required."

"Oh, well, if she's really that good, sign me up," Ruby replied. The consent form being sent over to her Scroll a few seconds later, Ruby squiggled her signature onto the touch-screen and hit the Reply button.

"Alright, I handed over the consent form, so Dr. Ziegler should be starting soon."

"How long 'til he's out of surgery?" Yang asked.

"It all depends on the extent of the damage and what they need to fix," Blake replied. "I'll let you know if anything happens."

"Thanks, Blake," Ruby said with a smile, shutting her Scroll before facing Ozpin. "So, did you need anything else?"

"No, I believe I have all I need for the mission report," Ozpin said as he straightened the papers at his desk. "Why don't you all run along. It's getting late, and I wouldn't want to keep you from your friend," he said waving the girls off, leaving the adults behind to talk. Once he elevator doors closed and the girls disappeared, the man let out a tired sigh and allowed his emotions to show. "Well, that could've gone better," he said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"From the look of things on the way back, there seemed to be a lot of damage done to the town," Coco said with crossed arms.

"Also, not only was a historical monument destroyed, but over a dozen people were murdered by what most assume to be some kind of mask-less variety of Grimm," Glynda interjected. "What are we going to tell the Council?"

"Well we can't simply tell them the _truth_. None of Team Ruby was even supposed to _take _this mission, and if they found out that a Faunus was directly involved in what transpired, they might take this as an excuse to eke out a hefty punishment for all the collateral done. Especially councilor Winchester with his aggressive anti-Faunus stances," Ozpin returned.

"That kind of treatment might also ostracize the Faunus community from the governmental structure as a whole, and possibly drive them into the arms of the White Fang," Coco said crossing his arms. "Honestly, it amazes me of how foolish your governmental structure can be sometimes. The IGO doesn't discriminate in the slightest, so we've _never _had any of our shipments hijacked, yet your Council refuses to look in the mirror and see the underlying root of the problem."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Toriko said as he drank a whole mug of hot chocolate in one gulp.

"…Like we were saying…" Ozpin said after pausing for a moment. "Some people might be able to place Jack at the center of the incident, but none of them could directly identify him as the thing terrorizing the town. On top of the swirling tattoos and the stark white hair, anyone looking for the _'Black Beast' _will likely send themselves on a wild goose chase, so at the very least, the more-troublesome member of Team Ruby has maintained his anonymity."

"Yet we can't just outright lie and tell them it _was_ a Grimm. That would imply we let one slip through the border patrols and into the heart of the Kingdom," Glynda said with crossed arms.

"And yet if you throw him to the wolves, the White Fang will see it as discriminatory, and they'll swell in number, just like after _every _high-profile case of racial discrimination," Coco stated with closed eyes.

"So regardless of whatever we say, _someone's _going to look bad by the end of the day," Ozpin sighed tiredly. He couldn't simply hand Jack over to the Council, the Faunus and his task force-to-be was too important when it came to making sure the Vytal Festival went off without a hitch; and this was assuming he _wasn't _being overly-paranoid. On the other hand, he couldn't alienate himself from the Council because if Beacon lost their financial backing over it, student quality would suffer, and there'd be another string of Frontier failures before everyone realized once again that you were only as safe as the Hunters were strong. "Any suggestions?"

After several minutes of silence, the first one to speak up on the issue was _Toriko_. After he'd set down his hot chocolate at least.

"Why not just say the 'Black Beast' was some kind of exotic animal someone smuggled in from the Frontier? You tell them Team Ruby managed to subdue it after Jack got the worst of it, and you can give them a sense of security knowing the threat's passed, and you don't have to tell them a complete lie," the man suggested. "Hell, the last time some collector had a Nitro smuggled into the country, during the cleanup, all the IGO had to do was play up the _exotic animal _spiel, and no-one felt like asking any deeper than that."

"That's… That's actually quite _brilliant,_" Glynda remarked with wide eyes, the others openly gawking at how _Toriko_ of all people managed to come up with something that so-effectively wrapped up the incident with a neat little bow.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere, Jack was in the process of being wheeled into the operating room. While he appeared to be fine on the outside, a cursory scan by Dr. Katt showed that the _internal _damage was something to be alarmed over. His rib cage, which had mostly-healed after his fight with Nora Valkyrie, now had multiple fractures one bad cough away from devolving into full-blown cracks. One more hit like the one Toriko gave him, and it could actually kill him if left untreated.

However, because the nature of his transformation was so unprecedented, not just _any _doctor could be called upon to treat him, since most _ordinary _doctors wouldn't know what to look for in the first place. While it was true that Dr. Ziegler was going to be presiding over the Faunus' treatment, and her work concerning POWs during the last war made her the foremost _Human _expert on Faunus anatomy, it still didn't change the fact that, one-of-the-best in the world or not, this wasn't something she could tackle by herself if they wanted Jack to come out of that operating room with a pulse.

And thus is where some of the more… _eccentric _doctors under Beacon's retinue come in. And not doctors in the same way that Dr. Oobleck was, but legit _medical _doctors. Though some might say the term was being used _loosely_. Neither of them were as famous as Dr. Ziegler, but that was largely by choice… and because some of their more _radical _practices would've had them disbarred from any other formal medical institution.

Because the life of a Huntsman was so much more valuable than the average citizen, to preserve their lives for future engagements with the Creatures of Grimm, or merely to instruct the next generation, certain procedures which would be considered "too extreme" were frequently applied to Hunters and even Hunters-in-Training, because their Aura and heartier constitution allowed them to _survive _such exotic treatments. Treatments which _civilians _might not be comfortable having performed on them.

At the moment, Jack laid bare upon an operating table in the ICU by paramedics, clad only in a pair of teal boxers, revealing all of his scars for the world to see sans those on his back. For those who didn't know he'd been born after the fact, most would've assumed he was a veteran of the last war with the number of scars criss-crossing his body. He had a breathing mask on that was pumping a special blend of anesthesia into his system, as his physiology was largely-resistant to conventional means of sleep-inducing drugs. As an added precaution, in the event that he was suddenly roused from his slumber, he was bound to the operating table by thick leather restraints holding his wrists, ankles, waist, and neck down. This was done largely to prevent him from gaining any kind of _leverage _that he could use to escape. Aura-inhibiting restraints were _not _being used, because his very survival hinged on his soul's ability to augment his own healing capacity.

The doors to the operating room swinging open, three doctors in teal scrubs entered.

Taking the lead was a woman appearing to be in her mid-twenties, her platinum-blond hair bound back in a low ponytail for surgery, and in her left hand was a long stainless steel case around five feet in length. Her blue eyes immediately locking onto her patient, her shoulders slumped as she took in the numerous scars littering his body, scars that no-one under two decades old should have. Her mind drifting back to the last war, she forced herself to come back to the present as she set her case on a table in the back of the room.

The next to enter the room was a woman of similar age, who unlike her colleague entered with a rather _languid _gait, her eyes falling onto the Faunus with a look akin to curiosity, rather than the urgency of one going into surgery. She had long orange hair tapering off to yellow at the tips resembling a billowing trail of flames, orange sunset-colored eyes, and half-circle wire-rimmed glasses resting atop her nose. She had delicate womanly features, but what stood out the _most _about her was that her… uh… _talent_, was very impressive, each half of her "talent" the size of her head, her surgical scrubs straining to contain them.

The last of the three doctors was a man at a staggering height of 6'10" with a well-built body, his shoulder-length hair a silver-gray color, a pair of large and round glasses situated atop his nose in front of dull green eyes. The most notable details about him was that he had a line of sewn stitches going down his forehead and across his cheek to under his left ear, as well as a large screw-in bolt going through his head; and not the comical kind like the gag arrow-through-the-head, but a _legit _head screw through the left side of his head. Held in his hand was a dull gray briefcase with a lock like something out of a sci-fi movie at the top, and numerous stitch-like patterns running across the surface.

The doors closing behind them, a _***Whrr*Chick* **_of deadbolts locking into place was momentarily heard as the doors went into lockdown, the red "In Surgery" light above it on the outside coming on. The necessary surgical tools already waiting for them, the three doctors moved to hover around their patient, Dr. Ziegler standing at the foot of his bed as she gave his medical charts a final once-over, the stitch-obsessed doctor on his right, and the "talented" to his left.

"So this is the patient we'll be operating on today," the stitch-themed doctor said looking the Faunus over. His eyes seeming to bore into the subject strapped down in front of him, his perception of the world slowly deviated from the conventions of three-dimensional space until the Faunus' very _soul _became perceptible to him. The resting state of the Faunus' soul, like most souls, resembled a round ball of whitish-blue light about the size of a grapefruit with a flame-like tail, similar to a Hitodama.

Focusing even further than that, the _true _colors of his soul slowly came into focus as the world around it dimmed.

Peering through the veil of whitish-blue light, the core of his very being was colored crimson like blood. Its "face", as interpreted through his understanding of Soul Wavelengths, had narrowed eyes and lips drawn up in a snarl while angrily beating like a fast heartbeat. It was the soul of someone withdrawn, who didn't let others get too close to his unguarded sides, yet was incredibly protective of those he _did _let close. In terms of "accents", the _decorations _that every Soul as seen via Wavelengths seemed to possess, there was a cross-shaped scar under its left eye, a long billowing flame-like trail of "hair" starting behind a tuft of bangs, and _most_-unique were a set of Nordic runes inscribed below its mouth, the words translating into **Force**, **Balance**, and **Push**.

However, while the doctor had seen all of this in the auditorium during Ozpin's speech, Jack's soul had _new _additions to it.

Just below the surface were thirteen small motes of silver light swirling around similar to electrons around an atom. Each was held within its own orbit, and each had its own Wavelength, though they were not _living _souls. As such, no interference was actively being pressed against Jack's soul proper as it "assimilated" the added energy through modulation of their Wavelengths.

To be honest, the man mused, it was quite similar to what a Maiden's soul looked like once that of the previous Maiden had become incorporated into it, though there were of course notable differences.

While the youngest of the "soul fragments" was already well on its way to fully synchronizing Wavelengths with Jack's soul, something that would slightly expand the "pool" of Aura he could draw from, the oldest of the soul fragments would take maybe a decade if not more until its own Wavelength fully synchronized with Jack's own and the energy was fully assimilated.

When it came to the soul of a Maiden, the synchronization of Wavelengths and the subsequent "assimilation" of Aura from predecessor to inheritor was largely instantaneous, because the Wavelengths of both parties' souls were usually _already _extremely similar. As such, it wasn't necessarily _random _when the power of a Maiden didn't go to next-of-kin, but more like it was impossible to _predict _in the case that it did not, because while _Aura _could be measured with new technologies, the Wavelengths of the soul itself were still imperceptible to machinery, and the kind of perception _he _had was one that was cultivated through many years as a Meister.

All that being the case, the opportunity to study the soul of a Maiden was rare; a fact that was compounded because the Brotherhood had completely lost track of the _Winter _Maiden as far back as three centuries ago, if not more. While Jack's soul and the ongoing assimilation of the thirteen "fragments" wasn't a _perfect_ substitute for the dynamics of the plasmology displayed by a Maiden, the phenomena would still offer ample data that would contribute to his ongoing studies.

"Dr. Stein, are you looking at people's souls again, or are you suddenly in the market for something new and unusual?" the "talented" doctor asked coyly.

"I'm merely examining the state that his soul is in after direct exposure to the Crimson Orb, Dr. Veronica," the now-named Dr. Stein said as he adjusted his glasses, and his perception of the world shifted back into three-dimensional space.

"Oh? And what did you see?" the now-named Dr. Veronica asked as her eyes drifted to the Faunus' left hand which was clenched in a tight fist.

"For the time being he's stable, though we should try to avoid needlessly giving his Aura more wounds to heal from than is necessary," Dr. Stein stated as he twirled a black marker around his fingers. "I assume that's why Dr. Ziegler brought her Caduceus Staff with her all the way from Atlas," he said turning to the first woman to enter.

"I'll only use this if the situation dictates," Dr. Ziegler stated as she made final adjustments to her instruments. Her case now open revealed a long staff-like tool, the shaft a metallic dark gray in color with a white pommel, and three segments of white plastic set radially around the tip. Just below it was a yellow cross-shaped trigger near a gold half-halo-like ornament, a press causing the end of the staff to glow with a miraculous golden light. "Now, let's see just what we're dealing with here."

Taking a scanner and wheeling it over to the operating table, she ran it over Jack's body, a real-time holographic interface materializing at the end of the room. After examining the epidermis, muscular, nervous, and cardiovascular systems, the blue-eyed doctor took to examining his skeletal structure, her eyes widening as the software highlighted numerous fractures in the lift sight of his rib cage with a baleful shade of red compared to the default blue.

"It would appear that a great deal of damage had been done to his rib cage during the recent fights," Dr. Veronica said as she adjusted her glasses.

"Hm, yes. One bad cough and he could wind up puncturing a lung, or even his heart in the worst-case scenario," Dr. Ziegler hummed.

"Given his medical history, it's no real surprise that Mr. Braxton's body is in such bad shape," Dr. Stein stated as he flexed his hand, small arcs of green lightning dancing around his fingertips in case the need to subjugate the Faunus arose. "Then again, he _did _get clobbered by who is essentially one of the strongest Humans in Remnant. Counting only brute force at least."

"Hmmm… It looks like I'll be needing my staff after all," Dr. Ziegler sighed as she put her Caduceus Staff on a table and wheeled it closer to the operating bench.

"I've read your recent papers on nanobiology and how it can be used to treat life-threatening injuries. While there's no doubt in my mind that your tech will be able to fix him right up, for maximum exposure to your tech, we should probably open him up," Dr. Veronica stated as she hovered around the Faunus' left hand, rubbing her chin as she wondered how to open it without agitating her patient.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Dr. Stein said in an almost giddy voice as he uncapped the marker and drew a large sideways **H** across the Faunus' body, effectively prepping him to have his chest split open.

"As much as I hate to say this, you're probably right about that," Dr. Ziegler sighed. At the very least, the young Faunus was being operated on in a sterile environment, instead of a battlefield tent. And just maybe, her Caduceus Staff could remove some of the strain on his body caused by the plentiful scar tissue that scans had measured.

She wanted to remove _all _of the damage, give him a life where he didn't feel like he needed pain-killers at all times of the day, but the nanomachines her Caduceus Staff used were _incredibly _expensive, and favor to Ozpin or not, she doubted her superiors would appreciate her expending so many resources on someone not part of the Atlesian command structure. Not as long as they weren't getting a return on their investment.

"And on that note, this seems like the perfect opportunity for a little… _experimentation,_" Dr. Stein said with a manic look on his face as he put his briefcase on a nearby table. Sparks of green lightning dancing across his fingertips, the man pressed his thumb to the lock, a series of red lights turning green before the bolts came undone with a _***CLICK***_.

"You've just been _itching _for an excuse to cram Spirit Bone into someone, haven't you?" Dr. Veronica asked as the lid creaked open, purple light and the slightest smell of ozone spilling into the room.

"Spirit Bone?! Are you out of your _mind_!?" Dr. Ziegler demanded angrily as she stomped over to the two and forced the lid shut. "Do you not realize how many soldiers in Atlas are killed every year because they volunteer for Spirit Bone implantation?!"

"All I have to do is modulate its Soul Wavelength to match Jack's own, and the risk will be almost completely neutralized," Dr. Stein said dismissing her concerns. "There might be a little itching and some nerve damage, but some medicine and acupuncture therapy should fix that right up," he said undoing the lock.

"You _can't _do something so radical without his consent!" Dr. Ziegler growled as she shut the briefcase again.

"As you may recall, the leader of Team Ruby had _already _given consent when she electronically signed this release form," the mad doctor said holding up his Scroll, the signature **Ruby Rose** written across the dotted line. "If she'd taken the time to read it, she'd have _known _that signing of this form subjects Jack to supplementary or otherwise experimental medical procedures not entirely necessary for preliminary treatment," he stated as he opened up the case.

"Do you not realize how much danger you'll be putting him in if you graft that into his body!?" Dr. Ziegler demanded as she angrily slammed the lid shut. "The Kingdoms spends thousands, if not _millions _every year acquiring and otherwise securing Spirit Bone for their own uses. If you do this, you'll be putting a target on his head!"

"It isn't like anyone other than the three of us will even know it's _there_," Dr. Stein waved off. "That is… unless someone _squeals_," he said casting look the Atlesian doctor's way. "Oh don't give me that look," he said opening the lock again. "How much dead meat did _you _experiment on until you got that magic wand of yours working the way you wanted it to?"

"Anything I ever worked with in the prototype stage was cloned tissue grown in petri dishes. None of it was sapient in any way!" she said slamming the lid shut with finality. "I don't care if you _do _work at Beacon and I don't. This young man is my patient too, and I will _not _allow you to turn him into one of your damned _science experiments_!" she growled as a golden aura flared around her.

"Alright, _fine_," the man sighed as he raised his hands away from the lock. "Once he's recovered from this surgery, I'll _ask _him if he wants Spirit Bone grafted onto his body. You happy now?"

"Very," Dr. Ziegler answered, happy there wouldn't be any _mad science _going on under her watch. "Dr. Veronica! Just what in god's name are you doing!?" she demanded seeing the orange-haired doctor bent at the waist, hovering around the Faunus' waistline.

"Hm?" she asked standing up, revealing her hands between the Faunus' fingers. "Oh, don't mind me. He just seemed to have something _interesting _clutched in his hand, and it wouldn't do to have it there when we're operating," she said as she finally pried his fingers loose. "Oh _hoh_, what's _this _now?" she asked as she plucked the tear-shaped jewel from his hand and held it up to the light. "Oh myyy, this _is _an exquisite jewel, isn't it?"

"Hmmm… It doesn't appear to be your run-of-the-mill gemstone, nor does its composition bare any similarities to Dust or even Materia," Dr. Stein hummed as he took it in his hand and turned it over.

"Could you _not _take things from the patient?" Dr. Ziegler demanded as she snatched the jewel from his hand and set it down on a nearby table. "Honestly, I feel like I'm the only one taking his treatment seriously."

"Oh don't be such a _prude _about it, we were just _curious _is all," Dr. Veronica said dismissively.

"All things considered, we probably _should _get his treatment underway. The anesthesia won't last forever," Dr. Stein hummed as he began turning his head-screw. Dr. Ziegler shuddered as it turned within his head, the man cranking it for several revolutions until he stopped it with a _***Click***_.

"Well alright then. As a friend of mine once said…" Dr. Veronica said with a manic fanged grin behind her mask. "Let's practice medicine, heheheheheheheheh…" she chuckled darkly as the light glinted off her glasses, Dr. Ziegler sighing tiredly at the eccentric nature of her colleagues as the two chuckled like a pair of mad scientists in a Midnight Science Fiction Feature.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Did anyone ever tell you how much I hate Mondays?" Yang asked her teammates.

"Yang, after the day we've all had, we _know_," Weiss sighed from her left.

"I really don't like coming here anymore," Ruby said from Yang's right.

"We _have _been visiting the infirmary with alarming frequency," Blake commented from Ruby's right.

Across from the four of them was **Room 356** of the infirmary, the numbers staring impetuously at them, almost mockingly at what they'd allowed to transpire. It had been a little over an hour since Jack had come out of surgery, and even though he'd been stabilized for a while, he still wasn't allowed any visitors.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"He seemed perfectly fine in the Bullhead on the way back," Yang answered.

"Maybe on the outside, but what about on the _inside_?" Weiss questioned. "Do you remember all that creaking? A metamorphosis on that scale… Who _knows _what kind of damage that could've done to his body in the long-term."

"I think that's what Dr. Ziegler is trying to find out," Blake returned, the name being one that most of them had only begun to care about just recently.

Dr. Angela Ziegler had started her career as a field medic and first-responder during the last war, and while she had saved many lives during the course of if, she had also received much criticism for helping both Humans _and _Faunus without exception. There was a lot of controversy centering around her equal treatment of POWs, most of which were often beaten so badly during interrogation and the preceding torture that many of them never saw the next sunrise after capture.

Still, despite the controversy surrounding her actions during the course of the Faunus Rights Revolution, she was able to become the head of surgery at a prominent Atlesian hospital and began pioneering new breakthroughs in the field of medicine. She was a popular figure among the peace-loving Faunus population, due to how she pushed for equal medical treatment and priority for both species. While most places no longer _officially _segregated, there was still staff out there that refused to serve Faunus, or would only provide them with sub-par treatment for no reason at all.

Normally a woman of her nature opposed to Atlas' militaristic approach for keeping the peace would be looked down upon or stonewalled at every turn. However, due to the work she did both before and after the last war, she'd been able to cultivate enough political acumen that she could prevent her work from being weaponized. Thanks to said clout, she'd been able to form the Valkyrie Swift-Response Unit, a medical corps that dealt with being the first to the site of a disaster and doling out medical aid, even before the arrival of armed forces.

"Well, nobody _died _or anything, so I'd consider this mission a rousing success," Yang said swinging her arm, albeit in an unenthusiastic manner. She ignored the fact that people _did _die, because they were a bunch of racists. And hate-crime racists like that deserved to die grisly deaths in the most painful and/or humiliating way possible.

**"Dude, are you seriously hijacking the narrative to rant about your political views?"**

**Shut **_**up **_**Tucker.**

"Maybe, but I realize that we _need _better intel before we do something like this again," Ruby said crossing her arms. "Next time… we might not be so lucky."

"Hey, don't sound so down," Weiss said clapping a hand on the girl's back. "Dr. Ziegler told us that the surgery went off without a hitch, and that when he wakes up he'll be better than ever."

"Then why aren't we allowed to see him?"

"Dr. Ziegler's probably going to be going back to Atlas first thing in the morning now that the Crimson Orb is gone, so she's probably triple-checking her work to make sure there won't be any complications she won't be around to fix," Blake stated. The door opening moments later, Ruby zipped up to the woman, her sister's hand on her cloak the only thing stopping her from bowling the woman over.

"Give it to us straight. Is Jack going to be okay?" Yang asked as Ruby gagged.

"No need to worry, your friend's perfectly fine," Dr. Ziegler answered. Now out of teal surgical scrubs, her hair was bound in a high ponytail, her youthful features visible. You'd almost never believe she was a woman in her forties from the lack of wrinkles. She wore a black button-up shirt beneath a white doctor's coat, subtly showing off her curvaceous womanly figure, a white knee-length skirt, black stockings, and white high-heeled shoes. "The surgery went off without a hitch. That being said…" she trailed off, their breath hitching. "Ms. Rose."

"Yes, doctor?"

"In the future, you should probably _read _release forms before signing them," the woman said leveling a flat stare at her. "If I weren't in that operating room, who _knows _what would've happened to him."

"What _would've _happened to him?" Weiss asked putting her fists on her hips.

"You're better off not knowing," the doctor replied. "Anyway," she said fishing out an orange bottle of pills from her pocket. "Mr. Braxton's going to be in a bit of pain when he wakes up, so have him take one of these first-thing with water. He'll need one in the morning when he wakes up and again before bed at night. Also, you should have him avoid rigorous physical training as much as possible, otherwise the stitches might come undone."

"Stitches?! How many did he _need_!?" Ruby cried.

"Nothing you need to worry about. As long as he gets plenty of rest, he should _barely _be recovered-enough to enter your school's sports festival at the end of the week," Dr. Ziegler replied. "Also, before I forget," she said fishing something out of her pocket. Holding it out to them, the girls' eyes widened as they beheld a flawless tear-shaped jewel.

"Whoa… What _is _that?" Ruby gawped.

"Your friend was clutching it in his hand the whole time. It seemed important-enough that he held it even in his sleep, so he'll probably appreciate this being given back to him," she said handing it to the younger girl. "Make sure you don't lose it. Just because his _body _is fine, doesn't mean he needs the added stress of losing something important to him on his _mind_."

"I won't," Ruby said clutching it close to her chest.

"Also, before I leave, I need to ask… Were you able to recover anything from the Crimson Orb?" the doctor asked.

"Sorry, but no," Ruby said shaking her head. "After it sucked Jack in and he transformed, there wasn't anything left of it. Like it wasn't even there in the first place."

"I was afraid of this. Without any physical evidence to study, there's no telling if this sort of transformation will be commonplace, or if this was an isolated incident," the woman said bringing a hand to her chin. "The religious denominations will definitely be fighting over this, bickering about who's right and who's wrong, whose religion is real and whose is fictional."

"I don't _care _about religion. All I want to know is if Jack's going to be okay," Yang growled.

"Mr. Braxton will be perfectly alright, that I assure you," the woman said raising her hands. As a doctor, she was familiar with how the health of a loved one could tax a person's mind. "He's incredibly resilient, that's for sure. Since there isn't any pressing need to keep him overnight for observation, as long as you don't jostle him around too much, it should be alright for the four of you to take him back to your dorm."

"Is he really fit to be walking around?" Blake asked worriedly. Jack had promised that he'd watch her back once they'd reconciled their shared past, but it deeply upset her that she couldn't do anything to help him when things were at their most dire.

"He's exhausted for the most-part, so he probably wouldn't notice a thing if someone put him in a wheelchair and carried him off," the woman replied. "If you want I can sign off on a prescription and have one brought out from storage. I'd actually _advise _this course of action because if he stayed here overnight for observation, you might not get _all _of him back tomorrow morning," she said with a shudder.

_'What does she mean by that?' _Weiss questioned.

"Yes please," Ruby replied with a small smile on her face. The good doctor walking off, Ruby released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, falling back into her seat and letting her head rest against the wall behind her. "Phew. That's a relief. Everything's going to be okay," she sighed.

"And hopefully it won't happen again," Blake sighed.

"Still, this trend is rather disconcerting," Weiss said biting on her nail. "This is what, the _fifth _time he's been sent to the infirmary since he became part of our team?"

" . . . Yang," Ruby spoke up after a few moments. "Am I cursed? Is Jack getting hurt all these times _my _fault?" she asked as her eyes watered.

"What? No! Of course not! What would make you think that?" the blond argued.

"It's just… _I _sent him out there. Toward some_thing_ we didn't know anything about. I think… I think maybe Ozpin _did _make a mistake," the red-hooded girl said as she shrunk in on herself, a sense of somberness weighing down on them. "Maybe I don't deserve to be a leader."

" . . . Are you done yet?" Weiss asked.

"W-What?"

"Are you done feeling sorry for yourself yet?" she reiterated. "Good, because I'm going to talk, and you're going to listen," she said crossing her arms. "Listen, it's _true _that I was less than thrilled when I was passed over for leader of the team. And for a long time that sentiment didn't change due in part to all your reckless decision-making without including the team on top of your immaturity. And do you want to know what I think now?" she asked, her words weighing heavily on Ruby. "I think in these past few weeks, you've started to mature into the kind of leader that Ozpin thought you would become. I don't know if it's because you've been learning more about how the real world works outside your rose-tinted fairy tale _delusions_, or if it's because of the added responsibility you've seen fit to take on, but I can honestly say that… _eventually_, I'd follow you into battle," she conceded. "So you shouldn't feel responsible for whatever happened to Jack. He trusted you to make the right call, and even though the road was a little bumpy along the way, we were able to do what we set out to do for Ozpin, all without losing a single person."

"Except those guys Jack mauled to death, but given the amount of Circle propaganda at the killing sites, that can be written off as acceptable losses," Blake said matter-of-factly.

"Speaking of which, _how _are we going to break it to Jack that some orb made him commit murder?" Yang said, the gravity of the situation making their minds feel heavy.

" . . . I think we should start by _not _telling him," Ruby said after a few moments. "Whatever that thing was, it _compelled _him to do those things. Sure, he hates racist people, I do too, but the Jack I know would _never _kill people in broad daylight like that."

"The Jack _we _know also can't fire face-lasers," Yang added.

"Whatever. Point is, Jack wasn't acting on his own volition," Ruby reiterated.

"Not entirely at least. Jack was fighting it every step of the way, at least where it mattered," Weiss stated. "Whenever that thing he turned into was about to hurt us, he stopped himself. It's callous to write off Human lives no matter how evil they might be, but at the least we stopped anyone _innocent _from getting killed."

"Yeah… I just wish it didn't happen," Ruby sighed.

"If someone else had touched that thing first, it could've happened to _any _of us," Yang said consoling her sister. "And for all we know, whatever regret that made that thing, would've done us more harm than it did him."

"So in a way, everything worked out for the best," Weiss said, deciding to look on the bright side of things. Anyone else would've used what had occurred to validate every stereotype against the Faunus they could, but Weiss…? Not anymore. Whatever Yang had learned about him had made her more somber than she'd ever seen the blond, and she was hoping someday, Jack would trust her enough with what she suspected Yang was told.

"Right. But it's a big world out there, and we aren't even two decades old yet. If the Ruby of Grief turned out to be real, who knows how many _other _myths and fables are actually real," Blake hummed.

"So… What? We need to completely re-evaluate our definition of reality?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

"Nothing nearly _that _outlandish," Weiss said with crossed arms. "We just… need to open our mind to the _possibility _that something could be real, while keeping a healthy sense of skepticism about us."

"Keep an open mind. I like the sound of that," Yang said with a smile as she cracked her knuckles. "I always _wanted _to punch a werewolf."

"Where did _that _fixation come from?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.

" . . . No reason," Yang deflected as she had a momentary flashback, centering around a little red wagon, its precious cargo, and an ancient house in the woods filled with monsters.

"So… What do we do now?" Ruby asked after a few moments, wondering exactly that.

"Well, waiting for that wheelchair and getting back to our _room _would be a start," Blake hummed. "I don't know about you guys. _*YAAAAAWN* _But I'm beat."

"Yeah. Our first mission and one of our team gets turned into a ravenous monster, a bunch of racist dirtballs get mauled, and two Gourmet Hunters almost beat our friend into a coma. I don't know if that's a success or a failure," Yang said adopting a thoughtful pose.

"Let's call it a pyrrhic victory, since one of our friends is sleeping it off in a hospital bed right now," Weiss said as she flattened the creases in her skirt.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Thank _god _we're home. Now we can go to bed," Ruby groaned as she entered her room, wondering if this is how her dad felt after coming home from a long mission.

"_Speaking_ of whiiich~" Yang said as she waggled her fingers on the handles of Jack's wheelchair. "Let's see about getting Jack out of these clothes and into his bed," she said wheeling him toward the bathroom, a perverse smile on her face.

"Oh no you don't!" Weiss said grabbing the handles from the blond's right. "Don't think I don't know what you're up to! Your face doesn't match your words in the slightest!"

"Why, whatever are you _talking_ about?" Yang asked with a beaming smile.

"Yang, is this one of those weird _boy meets girl _things?" Ruby asked grabbing the handles from the left.

"No, of course not."

"And yet you want to lock yourself alone with Jack in a small room. Have you no shame?" Weiss demanded.

"Whatever do you mean? I merely wish to change him into a lighter set of clothes so he's comfortable as he rests," Yang said sweetly as she batted her eyelashes, even as she draped her arms across his chest, his head lolling back to rest on her bosom.

"You fiend! Your only intention is to _molest _him! Like some kind of shameless pervert!"

"Says the girl who reads _Sixty Shades of Silver_," Yang cooly said back with a half-lidded gaze. "Sounds to me like _you _want to play a game of Where's the Badger."

"I-I want no such thing!" Weiss said with a flushed face. "Unlike you, I have more decency than that!"

"I didn't hear a _noooooooo~_"

"I _literally _said the word 'no' less than a minute ago!"

**"OBJECTION!" **Ruby shouted as she stood proud and pointed a fully-extended finger at them.

"Gwah!" Yang and Weiss recoiled as though struck.

"Hold it!" Ruby shouted. "I'm team leader! Jack's health is ultimately _my _responsibility!"

"R-Ruby, there's no need to take your duties _that _far," Yang said now on the defensive. _'If she sees his scars and know I saw them first but didn't tell her, I'll be in huge trouble.'_

"That's right. Leave a trifle such as this to the rank-and-file," she reluctantly said, hating herself even as she made that comparison about herself. "Your greatest priority should be to your own rest, or you won't be able to lead us."

"Guys, after today I realized I need to be a _better _leader, and to that end, I must take off all his clothes before going to bed with him," the little red-head said resolutely, not realizing how that sounded without proper context.

'_If it keeps going like this, Jack's going to be in this chair all night long,' _Blake sighed as the girls continued to bicker. Walking over to the closet and grabbing some of Jack's pajamas, she _literally _wheeled Jack into the bathroom behind their backs.

Shutting the door, most of the noise was muffled out, leaving her alone with Team RWBBY's singular male. _"Alright, let's see what the damage is," _she whispered aloud as she got a good look at his state of dress. Pretty much the entirety of his sleeves and pant legs were burned off to the shoulder and the hips, with a number of holes burned through his shirt with either fire or poison. In summary, nothing could be salvaged and it'd have to be thrown away.

"Let's get you out of these clothes, or what's _left _of them," the Faunus deadpanned as she slipped his shirt off over his head. It was proving to be a bit difficult since he was just _lying _there completely unresponsive, but that's just what _happens _when you're doped with enough tailor-made poison to knock out an elephant. Anything less and Coco wouldn't have been able to knock out his Appetite.

After a minute or two of struggling with the other Faunus' shirt, she finally got the idea to stand behind him and hug his arms above his head to her chest _before _she started pulling it up over his head, almost the entirety of his upper torso covered in bandages and gauze from surgery. Upon seeing the scars littering his body, she realized just how much punishment he'd taken in pursuit of the White Fang's cause for equal rights, and _appreciated _that there were others willing to put their lives on the line for it. Even when there were those like her who couldn't do the same when there wasn't any guarantee she'd walk out of it.

'_This is going to be a pain in the ass, I just know it,' _Blake sighed as she put the brakes on his wheelchair and kneeled down between his knees. Unzipping what was left of his pants, she quickly realized just how difficult it was to get someone out of their pants when they were _sitting _on them. Since Jack was so doped-up on neurotoxin that he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon, and the rest of Team RWBBY was _still _bickering over who was going to be alone in the bathroom with him so they could take his clothes off, it still fell onto her to do so all by herself.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, she draped him across his body before lifting him out of his chair with a huff, slowly laying him out across the floor. Kneeling next to him, she snaked one arm behind his back, the fingers of her other hand slowly dipping into the waistline of his pants before she began pulling them down. The burnt remains of his pants sliding down muscular legs, part of his zipper snagged on his boxers without her notice, and the moment Blake decided to slide his pants down the rest of his legs in one go, his entire nakedness became known to her.

"Now _that's _a katana," she said with a perverse grin before she slapped herself for saying that aloud.

Thinking back to the comradery that Adam and "Jack the Ripper" displayed whenever they crossed paths, she realized that the two of them were in fact best friends and rivals, and thus thinking of her partner's friend in "that way" made it weird. That and her _present _partner seemed to have a thing for him, but whatever sobering experience she'd had in the shower with him a while back had caused her to dial things back a bit. The lustful desires Yang held for the Faunus were still swelling within the busty blond's buxom bosom, but at the very least she was being _tactful _about it.

It was _also _quite amusing to see Weiss _Schnee _of all people beginning to fall for him. She was _literally _the whitest white-girl she'd ever met, and she couldn't be any more white unless her eyes were that milky-blind color. She was also the most anti-Faunus person she personally knew until whatever happened between them that landed the two of them in the same hospital room _happened_, where since then she actually seemed to be becoming more open-minded. An impossibility any other time before her stay in Beacon.

Suffice it to say, seeing someone like Weiss beginning to fall for Jack, whether it was a genuine romantic attraction or merely a physical infatuation directed towards a "bad boy", was _way _better than any scandalous NoL plotline involving a farming village girl and a proud shinobi. Or in some cases, _kunoichi._

"At least that answers whether the carpet matches the drapes or not," the raven-haired girl said aloud as she pulled his boxers back up his legs before reaching for his PJ bottoms.

She also noted that he wasn't nearly as well-endowed as the main protagonists from Ninjas of Love. Then again, those erotic stories weren't necessarily anatomically correct in their portrayal of the Human _–or Faunus-_ form. Men's genitals did not commonly exceed six inches in length when pumped with blood, women's abdomens did not _bulge _as their virgin soil was being plowed, and Faunus did not "mark" their partners with their teeth.

Unless that was their kink. But that was a completely separate matter from the inconsistencies displayed in erotica.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I don't get why you're so opposed to this," Ruby whined. "All I want to do is take his clothes off so he's more comfortable in bed with me."

"Guys," a voice said in the background.

"Ruby, do you not realize what you are _saying_?" Weiss asked. "You can't just go on about stripping a man naked, much less _talking _about being in the same bed as him."

"Hey guys," the same voice repeated.

"Look, I've got the most _hands-on _experience with Jack, so just leave this to me so we can all go to bed," Yang interjected.

"GUYS!"

"WHAT?!" Ruby, Weiss, and Yang shouted.

"Are you going to help me put Jack to bed, or are you going to make me do _that _by myself too?" Blake asked with a straight face as she stood next to his bed, Jack's wheelchair parked in front of her. Yang mourned for opportunities lost, Weiss felt an unfamiliar feeling form a knot in her stomach, and Ruby… was already crawling into bed now that the matter was resolved.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere in Vale…

"C'mon you stupid animals, pick up the pace here!" Roman shouted as the White Fang members under his employ unloaded the contents of a truck into a warehouse on the edge of town. Close-enough they could come and go in a hurry, far-enough that you could see trespassers coming a mile away and _deal with it_. "And don't let _any _of those crates fall over, their contents are more-valuable than all of you put together!"

_***Tug*Tug***_

"What is it, Neo? Can't you see I'm _working _here?"

" . . . "

"Boss-lady? Ugh, fine," the man groaned as he pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit the end with a snap of his fingers. "Just because I'm taking a phone call doesn't mean you get to stop working!" he shouted as he made his way to the back of the warehouse. Entering a small office, completely Spartan in design except for a single desk in the middle and an old computer monitor, he dropped himself into his seat and pressed a button on the keypad, the screen lighting up, only to show a shadowed woman on the other side, a golden eye glowing at him through the shadows. "Heya, boss-lady. What do you want? I'm in the middle of moving some highly-sensitive _cargo _here."

The only reason he was giving the woman on the other end sass was because she was half the world away.

Comparatively at least.

"Roman. I'm in no mood for sass, so I'm going to cut to the chase," the woman replied. "From what I understand, there was quite the commotion in town today. What did I tell you about making waves before the appointed time?"

"Hey, it wasn't _me _kicking up so much noise. Some idiot touched that red thing in town square and he went totally _bonkers_."

"Red thing… You mean the Crimson Orb?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure, whatever," the man shrugged. "Either way, the timing was impeccable. No-one noticed all that _non-standard hardware _being snuck into the country, so I'd call it a win-win for us."

"Right…" the woman said with a pause, deep in thought before turning her attention back to Roman. "Was there anything out-of-the-ordinary about the events surrounding the Crimson Orb?"

"Other than some _foodies_ rolling into town and sorting it out, nothing worth mentioning," the man said flippantly.

"I see… Keep me informed of the situation."

"Can do!" the man returned with a faux smile, the screen blacking out a few seconds later. _"Bitch," _he muttered under his breath. Stepping out of his dusty office, he saw that the last of the crates was being offloaded, placed in line with the rest. "See? _This _is what you can accomplish if you rub a few brain cells together," he complimented back-handedly as he appraised their work. "Alright, get out of here. Get! And don't let anyone see you on the way out!" he said shooing them away, the White Fang grunts grumbling under their breaths as they walked out, leaving only Roman and his lovely assistant behind. "Seems like everything's in order," he said taking in the work of his lackeys.

Said work of course was the unloading of over a dozen crates recently smuggled into the country from Atlas after some kind of heist they were sweeping under the rug. The crates themselves were old, as in, _really _old, the once-pristine metal tarnished making them look like the worn-out bulkheads of an old submarine. The only recent thing about them were the locks holding the fronts closed, though _those _had been disabled ages ago. Most of the crates were six feet in height and four wide, but some were plus-sized.

While the crates themselves were unimpressive, the contents on the other hand… that was a whole different story right there.

Most of their past centered around some huge government conspiracy where they used one of Atlas' expansions into the Frontier as a massive science experiment for some sort of science-centric _utopia_. Of course, it wasn't that much of a conspiracy _at all _since the infighting in Giga City between scientists got so out of hand that everyone _found out_ about the place.

To be honest, the man didn't really care about the goings-on of a Kingdom half the world away, but after being given a big stack of files with the word **CLASSIFIED **stamped on them in big red letters, he'd admit he was impressed with what most would _consider _out-of-date tech. It was a testament to the forefathers of modern robotics that their creations could still match, if not _exceed_, the power of modern combat androids pound-for-pound.

The pigs of the VPD and the pawns of the Hunter Union wouldn't know what hit them.

"Now…" Roman said as he rubbed his hands together. "Which gift do I open first?" he asked as he walked by a row of standing crates. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a Huntress by the toe. If she hollers, kill her slow. Eeny meeny, miny_, moe_," he hummed as his finger landed on the crate he'd selected, the letters **DLN-003** painted with stencil onto the front. "Well, looks like _you _get to go out first. Just have to wait for Bitch Pants Mc_Crabby_ to come through with those _upgrades _she was going on about and we'll be good to go!"

And from there the man proceeded to throw his head back laugh maniacally into the night air like a comic book villain, the room's only other occupant looking over her shoulder and making a twirling motion with her finger by her ear as her mismatched eyes changed color.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**The snippet at the end wasn't in the original draft, but I figured I'd make some foreshadowing for future plotlines now that this arc is concluded. This isn't the _first _hint about what I've been planning to add along this vein, but hopefully the serial number on Roman's box should be _the_ hint at what's coming soon to make up for the vagueness of other small clues.**


	33. Let Your Hair Down

**NeoNazo356: Hello readers, and welcome to 2017! The year's first update is to, obviously, Giant-Slayer, which obviously you are reading. Now, I see some long-time readers in here mixed with some new ones, so without further adieu, let's get to answering these Reviews.  
**

GammaTron:DLN-003... Dr. Light Number 003... Oh god. What's he gonna do to Roll Light?!

**NeoNazo356: While you're on the right track, you're barking up the wrong tree. DLN-000 is Proto Man's designation, DLN-001 is Rock's, and DLN-**_**002**_** is Roll's serial number. Obviously, DLN-003 is someone different.  
**

Skinnydude911: This was one amazing chapter here. I wasn't expecting Dr. Stein from Soul Eater to appear but this is a nice thing to see, especially with his ability to see souls and wavelengths to better understand aura. Blake using a RWBY Chibi line is priceless when seeing Jack's "hidden weapon". I had to look up what Roman was looking at when he was picking a crate, and I think I know what will be coming soon. Are you plan on bringing in the robot masters from Megaman?

**NeoNazo356: After watching and getting more-familiar with it, I felt competent-enough with the topic to include it into the narrative. It helps that their power LITERALLY comes from the manipulation of their SOUL Wavelengths, making the conversion between that and Aura as a power source relatively minimal.  
As for the Robot Masters, yes, you caught me, though the FIRST clue to my later plans were as far back as **Chapter 20: Like Fire &amp; Weiss**, when they were mentioned in one of Ruby's history reports to Dr. Oobleck. That's a little over a dozen chapters before now, and I'm surprised no-one called me on THAT, though now that THIS clue is out as of last-chapter, hopefully people looking back on it will say- "Oh, that makes sense." –or something to that effect.**

Zero Exceed: Interesting chapter. I'm definitely a bit excited to see Jack start to actually possibly heal from the events of his past. I'm also interested in seeing what happens with the Robot Masters. I only have two questions. First, who the heck is Dr. Veronica? Second, why did she reference the Medic from TF2?

**NeoNazo356: While it's true that Jack has an impetus to BEGIN to heal, the problem on HIS end is that if he DOES let the past go, the memories of his mother which he held in perfect clarity will begin to disappear. A LOT of characters in media say how after long-enough, the memories of their mothers become blurry. Jack avoided this by fixating on the bad, because it allowed him to remember the GOOD in perfect clarity.  
As for Dr. Veronica, she's from the game **Stella Glow** which I got for Christmas last year (2015). When it comes to her **_**inclusion**_** in the story as a pseudo-crossover, when I saw her shark-like grin in certain intervals and bore witness to her less-than-ethical medical practices (mostly live human experimentation), I realized that she and Dr. Stein were of a similar vein. As for the Medic from TF2 being referenced, first, glad you caught that. Second, he too seemed to be cut from the same "morally questionable" clothe as the likes of Dr. Stein and Veronica herself. I also could've mentioned someone's skeleton being lost, but that would imply that either of them had lost their license and thus, been disbarred from their respective practice.  
**

Anon360 (Guest): Anon360:I've gotta ask, from back in one of your previous chapters 'Fight, and Fight, and fight some more!' when Jack shouted 30% Full Cowl, I understand that it isn't One for All being used. However, you had previously mentioned that his semblance was essentially the Kaio-Ken, and it presumably goes up to x20, does that mean he used a Times Six burst in the fight with the training-androids?

**NeoNazo356: While normally I don't answer TO Guest Reviews, commonly because I CAN'T reply back in a timely manner, this is an interesting question I've decided to humor. While it's true that his Semblance, "Burst", IS essentially the Kaio-Ken, Burst only multiplies his BASE power level in increments. Jack **_**calling out **_**the percentile of his "Full Cowl" is SEPARATE from his Burst.  
To try and make this clear, Jack has both physical AND mental limiters placed on his body; the 100 kilos of weighted gear slow him down in the capacity of DBZ-style weight training, while on the subconscious end he limits the amount of power he expends to both avoid "agitating" old injuries, and to also limit the amount of Calories he expends to a manageable level. Also, as mentioned before, Jack has a large amount of scar tissue beneath the surface, as well as bone fractures and breaks that didn't heal 100% of the way, meaning it's difficult, **_**and **_**painful, for him to fight at full-tilt. Him calling out "Thirty Percent Full Cowl" is essentially him using 30% of his sum "Base Stats".  
However, undoing these psychological limiters is a "slow burn" kinda deal meaning it takes time, like changing gears in a stick-shift vehicle where you can only change every 10mph increment. His Semblance "Burst" in comparison is a "fast burn" where he can multiply the power he normally uses QUICKLY for more-immediate results. Of course, similar to the Kaio-Ken, usage of his "Burst" puts an incredible strain on the body at higher increments, so it's a balancing act between something Slow &amp; Safe, or Fast &amp; Immediate.**

**And now, onto the chapter.  
**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Cue Soul Eater OST – 42-42-564**

"Where the hell am I _now_?" Jack asked as he looked around.

He found himself sitting in what _felt _like a room, but there was no ceiling nor walls, only a floor of white sand. The sky was a perfect shade of sky-blue, and stylized clouds like in Mistrali art were seen floating around in circles, making the room resemble a sort of dome. All around him were thin black crosses sticking out of the ground, with smaller crosses making the vertical poles into crosses in the _first _place. Behind him was what looked like a tori gate mixed with a guillotine, the interior completely bathed in shadow.

"This is definitely different from the _last _place I was-"

His thoughts stopped as he realized he was sitting cross-legged on top of a red pillow, much like you'd find in Mistral when they didn't use chairs. Directly in front of him he found a wooden table designed to look like a cartoonish skull, with equally-sized circles for the eyes and nose going straight through it, and three spikes out the bottom making it resemble the teeth.

"What the… Is this _tea_?" he said picking up the cup that was waiting in front of him. It looked like your typical innocuous Mistrali teacup, made of clay with ridges on the outside, the upper half and inside covered in a dark green glaze. Within the cup itself was piping-hot green tea, a single tea leaf inside pointing straight up.

**"Yes, my favorite brew actually. I hope you aren't a **_**coffee guy**_**. If I have to put up with another one of **_**those **_**again, it'll be **_**too soon**_**."**

"WAAAAAAAAAGH!" Jack shrieked at the presence that completely snuck up on him. Floundering to remain upright and avoid spilling, setting the teacup down, he exhaled a shaky breath as he eyed the presence he now found across from him. "Etro's sake! You scared the _crap _out of me!"

**"I would certainly hope **_**not**_**. You have **_**any **_**idea how hard it is to wash those pillows by hand?"**

"Um… _Who _are you exactly?"

**"Hi there. I'm Lord Death. Nice to meetcha!"** the entity greeted enthusiastically with a wave of his hand.

"Whaaaaa…?" Jack gawped as he felt the gears inside his head grind to a halt and stall.

The being who called himself Lord Death appeared to be covered head to toe in a tattered piece of pitch black cloth with many jagged edges, while his face was decorated with a cartoony skull mask like the table, only in bone-white. His hands also appeared to be covered with large foam-finger gloves, which materialized from the ends of long skinny arms. All in all he looked like some kind of caricature of what Death would look like in the perspective of young children.

"Death. As in the Grim _Reaper_, Death?"

**"Yes indeedy," **the entity replied jovially.

"The reaper of souls and guide to the next world?"

**"Technically, someone **_**else **_**guides the souls to the next world. I just make sure theyget to where they're gonig****,"** he said with what _sounded _like a smile on his face. Kinda hard to tell with the mask.

"So… What, then, am I dead?" Jack asked. This wouldn't be the _first _time he had a conversation with a hallucinatory person. First time was after eating tree roots in a swamp, the next time was when he was slowly freezing to death, and after that, _heatstroke_. The last one was also coupled with gratuitous amounts of blood loss, but he mainly accredited that one to the heatstroke.

**"No, not quite. You were **_**close**_**, but a good friend of mine stopped that from happening."**

"Wait, if you're Death, shouldn't you be _bummed _about that?"

**"The thing I **_**should **_**be "bummed" about, is when a life ends too soon and I have to step in early,"** the entity answered. **"Word."**

"Huh. Makes sense," Jack said scratching his head. As far as hallucinatory conversation-partners went, this Lord Death guy was certainly the most _chipper _of them. "So uh… Why am I here exactly? Drinking tea with the Grim Reaper is _not _something I thought I'd ever be doing. And I live with a girl who swings around a giant scythe like a freaking _toy, _so that's _saying _something."

**"If you want to get **_**technical **_**about it, what you're having is equivalent to an out-of-body experience. You're still alive, you're just **_**floating about **_**is all. Don't worry though, you'll be fine as soon as you wake up."**

"I see. Nice to know I'm not dying. _Again_," Jack replied as he blew into the cup, before taking an experimental sip. "Hey uh, no offense or anything, but there's something that's been bugging me for a while."

**"Hoh? What's that?"**

"No offense, but uh… you sound really silly."

**"Well, when I got into the educational occupation, I had to change a few things so I wouldn't frighten the children," **he said as he slipped off his right glove, his arm suddenly bulking up with large skeletal claws, and the kanji for the word **Death **written on his forearm. **"Giant clawed hands that drag the damned down to hell aren't exactly child-friendly, you know."**

"You don't say…" Jack replied. _'What kind of school could the freaking Grim _Reaper _be teaching at?' _he wondered as he slipped his giant clawed hand back into the glove, and his arm deflated into a toothpick. "So… If this is an out-of-body experience, am I going to learn the secrets of the universe or something?"

**"No, no, nothing like that. I just wanted to thank you for the help is all."**

"Help? With what?"

**"Those thirteen souls you rescued were on the verge of descending into Madness and becoming Kishin Eggs. I simply wanted to thank you for the assistance. Even **_**I **_**didn't notice those souls were there, so you can probably imagine how **_**embarrassed **_**I am with all this,"** he said cupping his face as he swayed from side to side.

"I see… Well um… You're quite welcome," Jack replied.

**"Indeed. You did those women an invaluable service. They might not necessarily **_**remember **_**you on their next go of the block, but the gratitude they feel will be engraved into their souls for the rest of eternity."**

"I see…" Jack replied. _'Strangely enough this is the _third _philosophical hallucinatory dream I've ever had.'_

**"So… If I might ask something of you, how has **_**Ozpin **_**been doing?"**

"Etro's sake, man. What the hell'd Ozpin do to _you _to get you pissed off at him?" Jack questioned, easily recognizing the vitrol in the entity's voice, and the shift in his posture.

Lord Death was _not _amused.

**"Well, that old Time Duke of yours always says he's "made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on the planet". To put it simply, he made a rather **_**big **_**mistake a few years back, and I'm not so quick to forgive him for it." **

"Considering he wronged _you_ of all people, I'm smart enough not to press the issue," Jack relented, hiding part of his face behind his teacup. The only thing he truly feared was death itself, and if this _wasn't _another hallucinatory encounter, then he really _was _sitting in front of "death itself", so it was prudent to err on the side of caution. "As for how Ozpin's been doing…"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

" . . . Hey."

" . . . Yes?"

"Couldn't sleep?" Yang asked rolling over.

"Not in the slightest," Weiss replied as she shifted in her seat.

"How long have you been watching over him?"

"A couple hours now. Couldn't stay asleep even if I wanted to," the heiress answered. "I just… I had to make sure he was okay," she said somberly as she looked upon Jack's sleeping face.

"Wow, princess. You're getting awfully _close _to the guy. If you're not careful, people might get the wrong idea," the blond said with a Cheshire grin.

"He doesn't outright objectify me for my looks or money, nor does he try to get into my panties at every turn. Maybe I _do _want people to get the _'wrong idea' _about the two of us," she returned with a huff.

"Yikes, sorry. I just figured you'd be the _last _person to get close to a Faunus."

"Yeah, well maybe you figured _wrong_," Weiss bit back. "People always telling me who I should be or what I should believe in… It makes me feel sick, knowing I went along with it until only recently. That it took another's pain and suffering to help me see that," she said looking down at her hands, her mind going back to when they were stained with his blood in the most-literal sense.

"Well what do you know, our little princess is growing up~" Yang cooed. " . . . How's Jack been doing?"

"He's sleeping peacefully. Apart from all the extra hair, nothing's out of place."

"Yeah. He should probably get it cut as soon as he can."

"Like _you're _one to talk about hair-trimming," she said taking a brush to it, the heiress' _own _if Yang saw it correctly. Unless Jack just happened to have a taste for the finer things in life like ivory-hewn hairbrushes with frilly snow rabbit designs.

"Hey, my magnificent mane is too mighty to be managed," Yang alliterated.

"Right…" the heiress sighed as she brushed the tangles out. "What should we tell him when he wakes up?"

"About what? How he went on a bender and killed a bunch of racist cultists?" Yang queried. "Most people might be upset they committed murder not of their own will. Jack… He'd probably take us out for ice cream to celebrate."

"I want a sundae with everything on it," a new voice chimed in.

"Ruby, you're awake?" Weiss gasped.

"Um, _yeah_, you two have been talking out loud for the last ten minutes. How _couldn't _I wake up?"

"I'd like mint chocolate chip," Blake chimed in. She _tried _tuna flavored at a specialty shop in Mistral, and that stuff _turned_. Nearly as bad as the time Adam tricked her into eating a whole spoonful of wasabi back in his more juvenile days… Before the weight of so much blood and suffering turned him into a monster.

"Great, so we're _all _awake now," Yang groaned, looking out the window to see the sun not even up yet. "What do we do now?"

"Maybe we could give Jack some of our Aura again," Ruby suggested.

"That won't work when the receiving party isn't conscious," Weiss interjected. "That's why medical research into that field has become so important in the past few years, now that the technology of the now has caught up with the lofty ideas of the old."

"You really like to hear yourself talk don't you?" Blake asked skeptically.

"I'm just _saying _is all," the heiress huffed.

"But wait, what about when he got exposed to that Miasma? Didn't you give him Aura when he wasn't conscious _then_?" Ruby asked.

"That was different. When he was exposed to that Grimm's Miasma, the Hollowing created a _void _in his soul that let him readily accept my Aura, even when he himself was not consciously receptive to it. Those were different circumstances."

"So the short of it is we just have to play the waiting game," Yang said as she crossed her arms.

"_Nnngh… Dammit uncle… I don't wanna play kabuki…" _Jack muttered to himself.

"Is Jack talking in his sleep?" Ruby asked.

"I'm surprised he _can _sleep with how loud you all were being," Blake stated.

"_Stay away from me with that face paint… You know I hate dancing…"_

" . . . Jack has _really _weird relatives," Ruby consented, imagining a large cat-type Faunus wearing kabuki face paint and dancing on a stage, with one hand splayed forward and sakura petals being scattered by stage hands wearing black ninja-like attire.

"We know that his mother and sister were murdered, and that his relationship with his father is estranged at best," Weiss said adopting a thoughtful pose.

"His uncle sent him to Skyrim for training, because after his mother's death he was in a very dark place," Ruby added.

"And his mother had a best friend whom he saw as an aunt that didn't hesitate to eke out a little tough love," Blake commented.

"He also has someone he treats like a sister _now_, who he cares very deeply for," Yang said with crossed arms.

"I guess in a way, we _all _have issues with family. Jack just happened to get the short straw," Ruby sighed.

"I suppose we take what family we have for granted," Weiss said tiredly.

"Seriously, how deep a sleeper _is _he?" Blake wondered, with all the talking going on.

"If he could sleep through an explosion going off next door, I honestly wouldn't be surprised," Weiss said with a shrug.

"_I TOLD YOU I GET MEAT SWEATS!"_

_***BOOOOOOOM!***_

"_WHY MEEEEEEE?"_

" . . . I'm honestly not surprised," Weiss sighed in wake of the noise from across the hall as Jack continued to snore, nary a facial twitch in response.

"You think he's faking?" Blake asked, not even putting an effort into being quiet so early in the morning when Jack proved to be a _very _deep sleeper. At least when he was swimming in who-knows-what-kind of toxin.

"You really wanna find out?" Yang asked.

" . . . Not at _my _expense," the raven-haired girl shrugged as she imagined just how that'd turn out.

**"**_**I'M UNDER ATTAAACK!"**_

_***WHACK!***_

If waking him up turned out exactly like that, she wouldn't be surprised.

"_At the sea for a thousand years… and at the mountains for a thousand years… breathing the wind and drinking pure water… he passed the training of a Sennin," _Jack muttered as he rolled over in his sleep. _"Enduring it all, he gained the Seimei Kikan… People are able to… from the hair on their head to their intestines… their toes… even their most minute hairs… to concentrate their senses and stretch them to their limits… making it possible to control every part of their bodies."_

"He's a really vivid dreamer isn't he?" Ruby asked in the wake of Jack's near-poetic speech.

"And surprisingly articulate," Weiss noted. _***Shff***_ "EEP!" she suddenly squealed, jumping in her seat.

"What's wrong, Weiss?"

"Something brushed up against my leg!"

"The sex joke would've worked better if you were in his lap," the blond deadpanned.

"That wasn't a sex joke!" the heiress snapped.

"Is it a rat?" Blake asked, flexing her claws before retracting them.

"I'll get the blowtorch!" Ruby said making to scramble out of her bed.

"No, I think it's-"

The next moment, Jack's long banner of monochrome-colored hair suddenly rose up like a serpent. The extended follicles lashing out, Weiss found her arms bound to her sides, her knees pressed together and her ankles crossed. Suddenly hauled off her feet, the heiress was deposited onto Jack's bed right as he rolled over, an arm lazily draped over her body, the heiress practically nose-to-nose with the sleeping Faunus.

"Holy crap, people really _can _control their hair!" Yang gaped before she gripped at her own lochs. "C'mon. Up. Up! Up and at 'em so you can punch something," she said as she parted her mane into pigtails and slipped the ends through her Ember Celica. Scrunching her face in concentration, she began to turn red as she concentrated, looking more like she was trying to force out a really hard #2 instead.

"Yang, I don't think it works that way," Blake said peeking over the side of Yang's bed.

"_Nnngh…" _Jack mumbled, his hot breath on Weiss' face causing her to flush. _"I told you uncle… I don't have long hair like you do…"_

"Wait, so he's still asleep?" Ruby asked.

"I think we've established that," Weiss said as she struggled against the Faunus' folic grip, only for it to prove fruitlessly futile.

"I think you're stuck."

"Yes, I noticed."

"Huh. And here I thought the first one Jack would tie up was _me_~" Yang said cheekily.

"Yang, this isn't the time for our perverse fantasies, get me _out _of here!" Weiss squealed.

"I dunno. I think Jack's a little more at ease now with a little extra heat at his side," Blake smirked.

"Like an icy security blanket," Yang chuckled.

" . . . You're not going to let me live this down, are you?" Weiss asked.

"Hmmm… Nope!" Ruby replied, finding the team-bonding really sweet, and not at _all _understanding the deeper context.

" . . . Fine. But you don't breathe a word of this to _anyone_."

"Why use words when a picture's worth a thousand of them?" Yang said taking out her scroll.

"Yang Xiao Long, don't you-"

_***Click***_

"Aw shoot, you moved," Yang pouted, as mere moments before she pressed the button, Jack rolled over once more, taking Weiss out-of-frame.

'_Me? In bed with a Faunus?' _Weiss thought as she realized her predicament. _'Heheh. Father would be most displeased,' _she thought with a small smile as she nuzzled into the crook of his neck out-of-view, if only to spite her father.

Also, despite the rocky start the two of them had, things were starting to get _better _between them. Jack didn't leer derisively at her with scorn in his eyes, and she in turn learned it was easier to be around him when she wasn't belittling him at every turn. It wasn't a perfect partnership, but in time, maybe he'd be willing to help her bridge the gap between Humans and Faunus. With her as the eventual successor to the Schnee Dust Company, and he the son of the shocktroopers that almost went extinct to ensure Faunus freedom from Menagerie, there really weren't any better pair to do that.

The rest of Team RWBBY shrugging it off now that the show was over, they each crawled back into their bunks, slowly nodding off to sleep, some swifter than others.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Elsewhere across the hall, Team Juniper was sleeping soundly. Or rather, most of them were sleeping as soundly as they could with Jaune and Nora bickering about the room's thermostat settings.

At the very least, Jaune wanted to get _one _part of Jack's homework done right, even when he couldn't complete all his other exercises. Pyrrha was willing to help Jaune with that part of his training in the hopes that he _did _get stronger, Ren didn't vocally complain about it, and Nora… well, you already know what happened there.

Thankfully the grenade she'd fired at him was only a practice round so they didn't destroy any furniture. The same couldn't be said for Jaune's self-esteem though.

Pyrrha also wasn't sure _how _Nora had gotten hold of her Magnhild, because she was _sure _she'd seen the girl put it back in her locker.

Eventually they began to wake from their slumber. Pyrrha was the first, used to waking at the crack of dawn for training since she was a little girl, her slender yet muscular arms stretching over her head as she yawned cutely, her crimson tresses spilling down her back. Nora came shortly after, yawning loudly and widely, smacking her lips as she hopped out of her bed and excitedly did morning stretches, her curves bouncing enticingly within the confines of her tight sleepwear. Ren was more reserved than that, simply sitting up and rubbing his eyes, yawning into his hand. Jaune-

_***HOOOOOOONK!* **_"Eyaaaaaaagh!"_** *Thud***_

He screamed like "some girl" as Nora got in his face with an airhorn, scaring him out of his bed in a tangle of limbs and bed sheets.

"What the hell, Nora!?" Jaune cried as his ears rang, the blond violently kicked out of dreamland where Weiss had just agreed to marry him and have five kids. "Where'd you even _get _that thing?!"

"Jack gave me fifty lien to go to the school store and buy the best airhorn I could find. Sucker just lost twenty bucks," she said good-naturedly. "Still, I wonder why he never came by to collect," the red-haired girl hummed as she looked the high-end piece of noise-making hardware over.

"Yeah, I wonder _why_," the blond groaned as he got to his feet. If he didn't already know _why _Jack hated him so much, he'd think the guy was out to get him. Which he was. Technically.

"Somehow, this is _exactly _what I imagined Nora using that thing for," Ren stated evenly, having been present with the girl when she'd gotten it from the school store. "Changing topics, do you think Team Ruby returned safely from their mission? As I recall, things got really… _weird _yesterday," he said thinking back to yesterday when the sky suddenly darkened and a crimson lance of light pierced the sky. There was screaming, arson, and fifty different flavors of pandemonium as everyone claimed the world was ending and that they should repent.

Then everything began to wind down as teachers started coming out of their offices and giving unruly students the beatdown. In most schools, teachers beating up students would be a PR _nightmare,_ but at places like Beacon where _everyone _had some kind of superpower, drop-kicking them into next week when they stepped out of line was par for the course. It also helped that because _everyone _had "superpowers", the completed-buildings were built to withstand high-yield explosives.

To a reasonable degree at least.

That just begged the question: If Ozpin launched them off a cliff for initiation, and the teachers were allowed to use high explosives as a disciplinary measure, what was he going to do when they graduated? Set them on _fire_?

"Perhaps we should go check up on them," Pyrrha suggested.

"Yeah, lets!" Nora said as she skipped over toward the door, the group of them walking over to Team RWBBY's room. The perky red-head pulling a glass from… _somewhere_, she pressed it to the door before listening in. "Hmmm… It sounds like some of them are up. Let's knock!" she said whipping out her Magnhild.

"Nora!" Pyrrha gawped as the little red-head prepared to bust down their door, only for Ren to step in at the last moment and pull on the back of her shirt, the girl's hammer millimeters away from the door on the downswing.

"Nora."

"Yeah, Ren?"

"You… keep being you."

"Okay!" the ginger girl said with a cute tilt of her head.

"Hey guys," Jaune said as he knocked on the door. "It's us, Team Juniper. Are you up?"

"_Coming," _Ruby said from the other side before she came up and opened the door, still clad in her PJs with her sleeping mask on her forehead. "What's up?"

"We just wanted to check up on you now that you're back," Pyrrha answered. "We heard there was some kind of animal on the loose, and that Jack got the worst of it when he defended all of you. Is everything alright?"

"Other than Jack going under the knife for surgery, everything's fine," Ruby answered. "Although, it wasn't a wild animal that Jack was defending us from, it was-"

"An _exotic _wild animal that someone smuggled into Vale and it got loose!" Yang said zipping in and clapping a hand over Ruby's mouth. "Jack was out of it for most of the mission, and we needed to call the teachers for backup. Of course, everything's okay now, and you shouldn't ask _any _other questions."

"_Smooth," _Blake deadpanned from the side.

"Jack's in the hospital _again_?" Nora questioned.

"No-no, they let him out. He's sleeping the poison off as we speak," Yang replied.

"Hey Yang!" Jack asked out-of-frame.

"Yes, Jack?" the blond asked looking over her shoulder.

"Why is Weiss tied up in my bed?"

"T-T-Tied up…?" Pyrrha flushed with a red face.

"In his bed…?" Jaune asked as a knot of despair formed in his stomach.

"Don't you remember? You pulled her in there last night," the blond replied.

"Um, noI _don't _remember. I was _sleeping_."

"Oh, right," the blond replied.

"I'm uh… I'm going to go…" Jaune said weakly jabbing a thumb over his shoulder, his confidence having taken a big hit so early in the morning.

"When you say Weiss is _tied up _in his _bed_…?" Nora began to question.

"It's not what it sounds like!" the heiress squawked. "It just… sorta happened on its own!"

"For the record, I thought Biofeedback was a myth," the Faunus stated as Weiss tried to untangle herself from his lochs.

"Huh…" Nora hummed. "_Kinky_!" she said with a toothy grin.

"Nora…" Ren sighed.

"We'll uh… We'll let you get ready for your day," Pyrrha said nervously. The sight of Weiss tied down in Jack's bed was more… _titillating_, than she would've liked to admit. Was it weird that long hair was a kink? Wait, when the hell'd his hair even _get _that long?

"Well… That was a thing," Yang hummed as she closed the door, Ruby and Blake trying to prop Weiss up as they untangled her from Jack's hair.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

While Jack was pumped full of enough non-lethal toxin to drop an elephant like a sack of potatoes, due to his own cellular resilience to the stuff as a Honey Badger breed Faunus, he'd regained mobility surprisingly quickly.

Well... Partially at least.

As it turned out, while he could wiggle his toes, he didn't have any control of his legs, and while he could sit up at the waist, his arms were incredibly sluggish. As such, _both _of them had to be sat up so that they could untangle Weiss from Jack's lochs which had hog-tied her the night before. Tearing it by accident actually wasn't an issue, because of its inherent armor-like qualities due to the higher percentages of keratin. Still, given Yang's own propensity for… _overreacting _to hair-pulling, the three girls decided to err on the side of caution as they extricated the heiress from her extraordinary circumstances.

"Team!" Ruby announced from atop one of the chairs once the flushed heiress had been successfully extricated. " . . . I think we should take a day off today. Leader's orders!"

"Hm? What reason?" Jack asked from the bed, watching as both Weiss _and _Yang worked on brushing the knots out of his new mane of hair.

"I just think that after yesterday, we should… _decompress _so we don't burn ourselves out," Ruby reasoned. "Remember, we have Sports Day at the end of the week, and I really want to know what those prizes are, so we should all be well-rested before that happens."

"So it's a _free day _of sorts?" Weiss asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Ruby replied. "I… I got too eager yesterday. I had us walk into something we didn't fully understand, and one of us got hurt because of it. If we'd just taken a step back, maybe gone to the library or something, asked an _expert_, maybe things would've turned out differently."

"_Ruby…"_ Yang whispered at the hurt in her sister's eyes.

"What happened in the past doesn't matter. All that does is learning from it, and aspiring to do better the next time," Jack said sluggishly placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "That's what Dr. Oobleck taught us in class, isn't it?"

"Y-Yeah…" Ruby realized.

"So don't beat yourself up over this," Blake said putting a hand on her other shoulder. "It's barely been more than a month, and everyone makes mistakes. What matters is getting back to your feet and hoping to do better."

"No great leader is without their mistakes. A leader that hasn't learned from failure hasn't learned anything at all," Weiss said putting her hand over Jack's.

"So c'mon sis, turn that frown upside-down," Yang said putting her hand over Blake's.

_*Sniff* _"Thanks guys," Ruby said wiping a tear before opening up her arms and wrapping them around Jack, since he wasn't really in any position to get up. Yang followed suit wrapping her arms around the two of them, with Blake and Weiss joining in the group hug soon after. "You're the best team a girl could ever ask for."

"You got _that _right," Yang said with a thousand watt smile.

"Yes, so don't go doubting yourself again," Weiss said with a small smile of her own.

"I'm really glad for you all… but someone here _really_ needs a shower," Blake deadpanned as she scrunched her nose.

"Sorry. That's my bad," Jack replied. "Haven't showered since yesterday."

"Ew! Gross!" Ruby retched good-naturedly as she shoved his wheelchair towards him. "Clean up already! You smell bad!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going," Jack consented as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Jack, you can barely _move_. How are you going to clean yourself in that state?" Weiss asked worriedly.

"I'm a little sluggish at the moment, but I can still move my arms and upper body to some degree. My legs are really numb though, so as much as I hate to say this… I'm going to need help getting in and out of the shower," he sighed. _'I can feel it down in my Cells. Coco's poison has been diluted by my antibodies, but it'll be several more hours, maybe a full day, before I regain full mobility. Even then, my strength will be largely diminished until then, so I'll probably still need this chair to get around until the whole of my strength returns,' _he sighed to himself as he leaned out of his bed, only for his grip on the edge to slip, causing him to fall out of the bed and land flat on his face. _"A little help here?" _he asked in a muffled tone.

"Wow, that poison must be hitting you hard," Blake said as Ladybug hoisted Jack up by the armpits and carefully deposited him into his chair.

"Don't worry, Jack. _I'll _help you into the shower," Yang said in a sultry tone as she leaned towards him, their noses practically touching.

"You cad! You intend to take advantage of him again!" Weiss growled as she shoved Yang aside.

"Not _this _again," Blake groaned as Yang and Weiss began to bicker about who would be with Jack in the bathroom. While Ruby tried to play the role of intermediary, the raven-haired girl sighed as she went to the closet, a black one-piece swimsuit and a pair of trunks tucked under her arm, and some changes of clothes under the other before she wheeled Jack into the bathroom and closed the door, shutting out the bickering with a _***Click* **_of the lock.

"Three girls arguing over whose going to take off your clothes and get in the shower with you. Somehow, I don't think it's supposed to be this…"

"_Twisted_?" Blake asked.

"I was going to say _questionable_, but 'twisted' works too," the Faunus replied as Blake undid her sash, before closing the flaps of her robe shut and glowering at him.

"Do you mind?" she asked with a blush as she hid her body from view.

"Right, right, sorry," Jack said as he clamped his eyes shut, allowing the girl to shed her pajamas to the floor, before slipping into her one-piece swimsuit.

"Alright, you can look now," the raven-haired girl stated, Jack cracking an eye open to see Blake wearing a rather tame one-piece. It didn't show a whole lot of cleavage or anything like that, but it accentuated her womanly curves, the plumpness of her derriere, as well as the lithe flatness of her toned stomach. "What? Did you think I was going to go _au natural _with you like Yang did?"

"Uh, no. You grabbed a _swimsuit_," the Faunus deadpanned.

" . . . Right," Blake returned, realizing that quip had sounded better in her head. "Can you lift up your legs?"

"I'm still wearing clothes, remember?" the Faunus deadpanned as he gestured to his pajama pants.

" . . . This is going to be a pain in the ass, isn't it?" Blake questioned.

"Hey, _you _volunteered for bathroom duty, and it's all _I _can do to stop from falling out of my chair," Jack said as he weakly raised up an arm, only to fall back on the armrest. He could twitch his fingers, but only a little bit. "If you just let Yang have her way, your morning would be so much simpler."

"Well excuse me if I don't feel like leaving a teammate vulnerable to the advances of a sex-fiend-in-the-making," the raven-haired girl huffed.

"Hey, Yang isn't _that _bad."

"She tried to measure your morning wood with a ruler and a _flashlight_."

"Sounds like just another Tuesday to me."

"Do you have no shame?"

"I _do_. I'm just not an enormous _prude_ at the same time."

"Just shut up and help me take off your pants," she said with a completely straight face.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

A few minutes later and the two Faunus found themselves in the walk-in shower. When Jack was about to ask what Blake was going to do about her _accessories_, the answer came when she slipped a black and purple shuriken-print bathing cap over her head, hiding her auxiliary features from view.

Jack was currently propped up against the wall, while Blake went about washing herself as well as she could through her swimsuit. Every once in a while she'd take glances at his scarred body, but quickly look away.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the silence, apart from the shower's white noise, was broken.

"_If you want to talk about it, you can just ask," _Jack whispered. Between the closed door and the shower, this was as good a chance as any for the two of them to talk. Especially with the other girls _still _bickering. Somehow.

"_Fine. I'll ask…" _Blake sighed as she ran scented shampoo through her hair. _"How long have you known that I was… _me_?"_

"_You mean part of the same _social club_?" _he asked in case anyone was only faintly listening. _"Well, you stopped wearing a mask after a while, which in retrospect was a really _dumb _move. I mean seriously, if anyone from the _train _recognizes you, you're pretty much screwed."_

"_I realize that," _Blake pouted, while in actuality she only _just _realized it. All it would take to blow her secret was for someone to have _happened _to peek out a door from the forward compartment on the train, happening to see her at Beacon, and her whole charade would fall apart. Just because Androids and AI had advanced so far, didn't mean people were willing to leave entire _trains _of Dust completely unmanned. Software failure was still a thing. A very _costly _thing. _"So… You _know_. What're you going to do now?"_

"_The same when I confronted you about your choice in hair accessories. You make your bed, you lie in it. It's that simple. That isn't my secret to give out. I've got my _own _baggage to deal with, you handle your own stuff," _Jack stated as he clenched his fingers, popping is claws in and out. _"But like I said before, the longer you wait, the harder it's going to be. And if they find out in a really roundabout way like… you blurting out something really _stupid_, well, it's really going to hurt their trust in you. It's easier to patch up a bridge than it is to rebuild it wholesale after burning it to the ground."_

"_I'll keep that in mind," _Blake hummed as she began working some suds into his scalp.

"That isn't really necessary, you know," he said aloud. "In case you forgot, my skin and hair is hydrophobic. I don't really _need _soap to clean off, just a bit of running water."

"Lucky bastard," the raven-haired girl huffed as she looked at the rivulets of water running down his impressive mane of hair.

"_The _bastard," the Faunus chuckled as he waggled his ears.

" . . . Alright, I have to ask. How are your stitches?" she asked motioning to the waterproof bandages spanning the front of his chest.

"Whoever worked on me did a really good job. Or at least that's what it _feels _like anyway," Jack answered as he shakily raised an arm to rub at his chest. "I don't feel like my stitches are about to _break _or anything, but I guess it helps that I'm so sluggish. Doesn't mean I _like _it though."

"I thought your kind was _resistant _to poison."

"Resistant, yes. _Immune_, no," he deadpanned. "My body's whipping up antibodies as we speak, but that sort of thing takes _time_. Aura might be able to heal cuts, bruises, and even bullet holes if they don't kill you first, but poison isn't one of them unless you have a _medical _Semblance."

"Hm. Fair point," Blake hummed. "Do you want to drop by the sauna later, try sweating this out? The section of the _library _we're working in isn't exactly wheelchair-accessible, and I don't feel like lugging you _and _a chair up all those stairs."

"Muscle weighs more than fat."

"Yes, Jack, I'm aware that you are quite _ripped,_" the Faunus girl said making air quotes as she got back to cleaning herself.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Are you three _seriously _still bickering?" Jack asked as Blake wheeled him out of the bathroom a few minutes later. Blake was clad in her Beacon uniform, but Jack was wearing a fresh set of PJs and a bathrobe.

"You're _finished_?!" Yang gawped.

"Trust me, you gave us _plenty _of time," Blake said glancing up at the clock.

"Aren't you going to get dressed?" Weiss asked her male teammate.

"Weiss, I'm injured. And, as an injured person, it's my prerogative to dress-down in a wheelchair and drape a blanket over my legs," the Faunus answered, Blake putting a quilted blanket over his numbed extremities.

"He isn't wrong you know," Ruby hummed. "Besides, can you even _lift _him? Muscle weighs more than _fat _you know."

"_Thank _you!" Jack stated, much to Blake's chagrin.

"Well, how long until you can move on your own?" the heiress asked.

"No idea. But I figure a good meal would help," Jack said rubbing at his stomach.

"Well, you'll all need to make due without me. _I _have plans to get the old gang back together for a little R&amp;R," Ruby said as she strode over to the bathroom to get ready.

"Huh, guess it's just the four of us today," Yang said with a shrug as she walked over to the closet. The door left conspicuously open, Weiss gawped as Yang pulled her shirt over her head without an ounce of shame.

"Yaaang!" Weiss squawked as the blond began to disrobe in front of the wheelchair-bound Faunus. Her shirt pulled over her head revealed her voluminous bust held within an orange D-Cup bra, capturing the Faunus' undivided attention.

"What? It's not like he hasn't seen it all before," she said pulling her pants down, making a show of bending over and giving a tantalizing view of her panty-clad derriere.

'_It's like a perfectly ripened peach,' _both Jack _and _Blake thought at the same time.

"That's exactly the _problem_!" Weiss said as she clamped her hands over the Faunus' eyes. "Have you no shame?"

"Just because _you _don't have a bod worth showing off-"

"Ex_cuse _me!?"

"-doesn't mean I can't treat my friends to the _finer _things in life," she finished as she crossed her arms behind her head, sending a wink Blake's way, causing the girl to blush slightly at the bouncing of her bosom. Ninja's of love wasn't _only _heterosexual romances. There was some homo in there as well. Male _or _female.

"Ruby being absent is the only reason we're even _having _this conversation, isn't it?" Jack saw fit to ask behind the heiress' manicured fingers.

"You know me all too well~"

"You cad!"

"This is _not _what I expected my school life to be like."

"_Guys, are you fighting again?"_

"No! Get back in the shower!" the four shouted.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Well… I think it's safe to say we all dodged a bullet on _that _one," Weiss sighed as Yang finished escorting Ruby over to the airfield.

"Agreed," the remaining three sighed. At the least, Yang had _some _form of decorum. Ruby may've had a good head on her shoulders and a creative mind when it came to the killing arts, but she was also impressionable to the point she could pick up bad habits even by accident.

Let's just say that Yang lost a _lot _of money forwarding what Ruby owed to the family's swear jar.

"So… How 'bout that breakfast?" Yang asked.

"Agreed," Jack and Blake sighed in unison.

The trek to the cafeteria was pretty sedate for the four of them. While Blake held the handles of Jack's wheelchair, the Faunus' arms too numb to propel himself at a reasonable clip, Yang flanked them to the right, Weiss on the left side. As they neared the cafeteria, the four of them quickly became subject to hushed whispers from groups of student huddled together, all trying to subtly cast glances their way.

They all failed spectacularly.

"_We seem to be getting quite a lot of attention," _Blake hummed as Yang and Weiss opened the wide double-doors for them.

"_Yeah, I noticed," _Yang said as she eyed the students sizing them up, Jack in particular.

"_I didn't think our one mission would garner so much repute," _Weiss stated.

"_How do you think _I _feel?" _Jack asked as he was wheeled over to an empty spot. _"This is the weakest anyone at Beacon's ever seen me, so they're probably trying to wrap their heads around what kind of animal would put _me of all people _in a chair."_

"_Well, the story _is _kinda true," _Yang hummed.

"_And as long as you all keep your mouths shut, it'll _stay _that way," _Weiss deadpanned. _"If they find any inconsistencies, we're going to have to answer some really difficult questions."_

"_That goes without saying," _Blake sighed. "So Jack, anything in particular you want for breakfast?"

"Food," Jack said as he clenched and unclenched his hands. _***Growrrrrrrrr* **_"And plenty of it."

"Food and plenty of it. You got it," Yang said as she and Blake walked off, leaving Jack and Weiss on their own.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Well… This is awkward."

"Definitely," Weiss sighed.

"So you uh… You doing okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well, apparently you took a bit of a beating when I was… _indisposed_. I just wanted to make sure you weren't too shaken up about it or anything."

"I'm not a porcelain _figurine_. I can take care of myself," the heiress pouted.

"I was never saying you couldn't, I just wanted to make sure you weren't hurt too badly or anything."

"You don't have to worry about me, I'm fine. My Aura took most of the damage for me."

"That still doesn't mean your guard can't be broken _through_. Apply enough force to someone's Aura and even when they have some left, you can still punch through to the body underneath."

"I assume you speak from personal experience?"

"You could say that," Jack answered, rubbing the spot she'd run him through with her rapier, causing her to look away in shame. "Hey, like I said, it's fine. What's done is done."

"Yeah… You're right," Weiss sighed. "Hey Jack, listen, I-"

"Food's here!" Yang whooped as she brought a tray full of food down in front of Jack, causing the table to shake as he stared at the mass of food before him. It was even taller than the one _Nora _tried to make with pancakes; and nothing but. "Weee've got waffles, sausage, bacon, eggs, ham, bacon, French toast, pancakes, _aaand_ bacon, all part of a balanced-" Yang paused as the towering pile of food began to tip over, only for the girl to nudge it back into place with her finger. "-breakfast."

"With a generous helping of syrup," Blake hummed as rivulets of Nora's favorite condiment dribbled down the sides, somehow acting as both a lubricant _and _a glue.

"That sounds like _entirely _too much bacon," Weiss huffed looking at the monstrosity before her.

"The staff was also kind enough to hand us a whole carton of orange juice since you're feeling under the weather," Blake said putting a carton of OJ down in front of Jack.

"Guys, I know that Jack's going to be _hungry _after yesterday's events, but don't you think this is a little-"

_***GROWWWWWRRRRRRR***_

" . . . excessive," the heiress sighed, realizing Jack's stomach had done all the talking _for _him.

"Well, the gut _has _spoken~" Yang said stabbing part of the pillar of food with a fork before holding it up to the Faunus. "Alright, Jack. Open up and say _Aaaaahn~_" she cooed holding the food out for him.

"Uhhh-Mm!" Jack didn't have a whole lot of room to refuse, _literally_, as the food was crammed into his mouth.

"Yang, you're going to _kill _him if you keep that up!" Weiss cried as Yang continued to shovel food into the Faunus' gullet.

_***Growrrrrrrrr***_

"Don't you hear him _now_? My boy's _hungry_!" the blond snapped back.

"_Your _boy?!"

'_If this weren't par for the course, I'd be surprised by now,' _Blake thought to herself as she rested her chin in her hands, nursing a tuna fish sandwich.

"At least give him a _balanced _breakfast," Weiss argued as she fast-walked over to the buffet line and got a large fruit salad. It was unladylike to run in heels.

**15 Minutes Later…**

"What the hell you two?! What the _actual _hell!?" Blake gawped at the two fifteen minutes later.

"I'm _sorry_. I thought he kept asking for more," Yang apologized.

"In hindsight, a little restraint would've been prudent," Weiss admitted, just-as-embarrassed she'd allowed things to escalate so far. In the two's zeal to accelerate the Faunus' recovery via food, their enthusiasm had caused them to… well… _over-stuff _this turkey.

Jack's body had "rounded out" to the point that he looked like Nora after what was now referred to as "The Pancake Massacre", his body rolls causing the arm bars of the wheelchair to bend, and the wheels to groan at the excessive weight. If he'd been wearing his Beacon uniform, every button would've snapped free, and might've taken out an eye or two. Or six.

"This amount of over-eating _cannot _be healthy," Pyrrha stated as she nursed a bowl of wheat flakes a couple feet away. Let's just say that after sponsoring Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes and _numerous _re-takes because of the whims of the director (or as he liked to call himself, "an _artist_"), junk-cereal was largely ruined for her.

"I didn't even _know _Jack could get this fat," Jaune hummed. He wanted to laugh, he really did, but he also didn't want to find out the hard way whether or not Jack had _any _familiarity with Sumo. Getting his block knocked off by a fat guy wearing a loin cloth was _not _one of his preferred ways to go out.

"You have my condolences," Ren sighed.

"You look like a beached whale. Or a manatee," Nora postulated.

"Urp… Don't worry about me…" Jack belched. "My uncle… made me practice Senjutsu… for just this occasion."

"He _did_?" everyone gawped.

"He foresaw a situation like _this _in sage training?" Ren asked in disbelief.

"To be honest, this particular line of lessons didn't really _click _until just now, but I'm glad I paid attention," Jack said adjusting himself in his seat, a concentrated look spreading across his features. "Seimei Kikan…" he intoned as he brought his hands together in prayer. "Shoka!" he shouted loudly, the rolls of fat completely disappearing from his body, leaving him an emaciated shadow of his former self.

"MUMMYYYYYYY!" Nora squealed in the wake of Jack's gaunt features and bony extremities.

"I think I'm gonna be sick!" Jaune retched as he ran for a trashcan like it was Day One. _Negative One _if you want to get anal about it.

"Good lord! What have you _done_ to yourself?!" Weiss demanded as part of the Faunus' robe slid down his now-bony shoulder.

"Quit freaking out… I can fix this…" Jack wheezed out, the sound of his voice causing those present to shudder. "Kyushu!" he then intoned as he clapped his hands together, his body filling out to its original dimensions pre-breakfast.

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Holy crap that was _awesome_!" Nora squealed while all others' jaws had fallen to the floor.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Well _that _was… traumatizing…" Blake hummed as the three of them left the cafeteria a few minutes later.

The moment Jack had managed to lose half his bodyweight in food, Nora skipped up to them with stars in her eyes saying how "awesome" that was he just did, even though she didn't have a _clue _how he did that, and then proceeded to ask him to "do it again". With some reluctance, Jack _did _do it "again", transitioning from fat, to skeletal, to normal, before rebounding when the ginger girl refused to relent having not gotten enough of it the _first _time. Suffice it to say, watching Jack contort his body in such a way was both fascinating, and _horrifying _to bear witness to.

Seeing all that just made Blake wonder what the _hell _kind of Monsters lived in Jack's family tree that he could even _learn _to do something like that to himself. Sure, being able to eat as much as you want and then lose all the weight at once on a whim was every self-conscious woman's dream, but to actually _witness _it… That shit was not normal!

"What the hell? _Seriously_! What the hell?" Yang demanded. "That shit was _not _normal!"

'_It's like she's reading my mind,' _Blake thought.

"Since when has anything about him _been _normal?" Weiss asked skeptically, trying to repress those memories until the horror no longer remained in her mind.

"Did I never tell you guys I underwent sage training?" Jack questioned. "Not that mystic martial arts stuff you see in manga that lets people throw mountains like skipping stones, but the _actual _sage training where you commune between yourself and the universe. You know, the whole _Transcendence _spiel."

"You… _may _have mentioned something like that once or twice," Weiss answered, realizing that was the sort of thing Jack was sleep-talking about the previous night.

"Yeah, but how did you learn to do… _that_?" Yang asked as she made fat and skinny motions with her hands around her midriff.

"Meditation and fasting. _Lots _of fasting. Since I've had so much practice going without adequate amounts of food, that part of my training came pretty easily," Jack said with a smile on his face. One Yang instantly recognized as being fake, Blake and Weiss taking it at literal face value.

It was only the joking tone he used that had prevented the others from recognizing the deeper subtext.

"_There, there. Everything's okay now,"_ Yang cooed softly as she wrapped her arms around Jack's neck in a tender hug. _"I'm here… We're all here," _she said stroking his head.

"You fiend!" Weiss squawked at what was supposed to be a touching moment as Jack's face was smothered by the blond's bosom.

'_Perhaps I should try to change the topic,' _Blake thought to herself. "Jack, since we have the day off, do you want to hit the Rec Center like we talked about? I'm pretty sure trying to sweat Coco's poison out of your system will have you on your feet faster."

"Or _kill _him!" Yang squawked. "Did you not _see _what he did to himself back there!? It was like something straight out of a mummy movie!"

"Well what would _you _suggest? We just _lug _Jack around all day like some kind of _invalid_?" Blake asked.

"I think we're all forgetting the most-important thing here," Weiss interjected, before putting her hands on the handles of Jack's wheelchair and kneeling so they were eye-level. "Jack. What do _you _want to do today?"

"I… Think the sauna might be a good choice," Jack answered. "And as long as no-one locks it from the outside, we should all be good."

"That only happens in bad sitcoms," Weiss sighed.

"And how would _you _know that?" Yang asked.

"I-I just do, _okay_!" Weiss squawked. Never would she admit to having one of the family butlers _smuggle_ in a Scroll for her to watch TV series on. Back home it was always _school-this _or _lessons-that_. The only reason she knew _anything _about the world outside of Atlas was because the butlers that tended to her mother treated her like family, sneaking in media for her even at the risk to their careers. _'Maybe I should send a gift basket back home, let them know I'm doing alright.'_

"Can we please get back on track? I don't want to be out here all day," Blake deadpanned.

"Right!" Yang said clapping her hands together. "Weiss, you go on ahead and reserve a room for us in advance. I'll be heading back to the dorms and grabbing some clothes for the four of us."

"Hey, why do _I _have to do the legwork?" Weiss demanded. Compared to the walk it'd take to get back to the dorms, the journey to the Rec Center would be a _far _longer trek, since it was on the far side of campus.

"I've seen your legs. They could use a little muscle on them," Yang said waggling her fingers at the skinny alabaster legs sticking out the bottom of Weiss' skirt.

"Hmph!" the heiress huffed as she walked off toward the Rec Center.

"Whelp! I'm going to go grab some swimsuits!" Yang said clapping her hands. "Blake, you stay here and watch Jack for me, okay?"

"Sure thing, Yang," Blake said weakly, letting the busty blond walk off leaving her and Jack alone, their fingers drumming on their respective handholds. Her Scroll vibrating a few minutes later, she turned around to hide it from Jack's view. "Unknown Number? How'd they even get _this_ number, then?" Blake asked as she opened the text. "BWAAAAAGH!" she yelped out as she got an eyeful, a hand clapped over Jack's mouth as he was wheeled off without the cat-girl's notice.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

In his toxified state, Jack didn't have much choice but to go along with wherever he was being wheeled, the Faunus being dragged behind a nearby building the moment Blake was distracted. Roughly spun around, the back of his chair hitting a brick-hewn wall, Jack looked upon his would-be kidnappers, a laugh spilling out of his mouth moments later.

"Sup, bitches? When'd _you _sorry lot get out of the ICU?" Jack asked casually. He honestly would've forgotten about them entirely if he didn't hate those three with every fiber of his being.

"This morning. And it seems like we chose the right opportunity to leave if the _wheelchair _is any indicator," Dominic said with a grin. "The three of us are stronger than ever, while you're weaker than _Jauney-boy _of Juniper."

"How that freakin' pussy ever survived Initiation is beyond me," Ian huffed.

"Well look at you. You grew back the _spine _I kicked out of ya. Good for you, good for you," Jack mock-clapped. Rudolph stepped in and slapped Jack full-on across the face, a sneer pulling at his face only to falter when Jack continued to slow-clap. "Ha! Joke's on _you_. I'm still swimming in neurotoxin. I didn't feel a _thing_."

"Fucking _bastard_!" Dominic growled as he slugged Jack across the face. "_Fuck_!" he swore in a high-pitched squeal, his knuckles split open from where he'd struck what felt like solid iron.

'Love _that move,' _Jack thought with a grin as Ian tried to kick the long nerve running up his shin. However, because of his toxified state, Jack didn't even _feel _it.

"Dammit, stop screwing around you two!" Dominic growled as he held his partners back. "It's obvious he's using that Iron Mass move to make himself _harder._"

"Then what do we do?" Ian asked. "His teammates could come around the corner any _second _now," he said worriedly.

"We hit him all at once from every angle. He can't guard himself forever," Dominic said as the gears in his head began to turn. "So… Any last words before we beat you into next week?" the brunette asked as he and the others cracked their knuckles.

"Yeah. Three."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"You lost him?!"

"He's in a freakin' wheelchair!"

"What the heck's _wrong _with you!?"

"I-It wasn't my fault!" Blake yelped as the two girls continued to rage at her. "Someone paged me on my Scroll, and when I looked back up, he wasn't there anymore!"

If they ever found out she flipped out over someone texting her a _dick picture _over her Scroll, they'd never let her hear the end of it. What sucked more was whoever sent it probably thought their hardware was _impressive_. It wasn't like she _wanted _those kinds of pictures being sent to her, but on sheer principle, she'd have wanted it to be something a little more impressive than whoever _sent _that in the first place.

At the very least, Jack's flaccid member was the largest she'd ever personally seen in memory.

Not that she went around pants-diving with random dudes to see flaccid members, mind you.

'_But that was completely by accident!' _the raven-haired girl asserted to herself.

"He was right in front of you! How do you take your eyes off someone in a _wheelchair_?!" Weiss demanded.

"W-Well I turned around so Jack wouldn't see and-"

"You boob!" Weiss screeched as she slapped Blake upside the head. "Don't you realize how many enemies Jack has at this school? Enemies that would want to take advantage of this moment of weakness?"

"I'm sorry!" Blake cried. Normally she was more stoic than this, but Weiss _and _Yang, of all the possible combinations, joining forces to rip her a new one punched through all her weak points.

_**"-DAH!" *BWOOOOOOM!***_

"What the heck was that?!" the three of them yelped at the loud explosion that shook the air.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Huh… Guess I'm a little out-of-practice," Jack huffed, wisps of Aura spilling out of his lips as he rubbed his sore throat, the remnants of Team Dirge flung through a window, some topiary, and an unattended food cart. "Well!" he said clapping his hands together as his ex-Team's asses were left hanging out in the wind. "Unless someone _else _wants to try fighting the guy in the wheelchair…"

" . . . "

"Good chat, new guy," Jack returned with a nod to the extra who had accompanied the remnants of his old team, but had abstained from getting directly involved. "Well, I'll just get out of your hair. I'm sure you'll want to scrape up what's left of your team and their dignity," he said shakily grabbing the rails of his wheelchair and rolling off. Good thing there was a slight incline. "Ah, who am I kidding? They didn't have any dignity in the _first_ place."

"Jack! Jack! Where are you?" Jack heard as he rolled around the corner of the building, bearing witness to Weiss, Blake, and Yang completely losing their shit like parents who lost their kid at the zoo.

"Hey guys. Lose something?" the Faunus asked.

"Jack! Where the _hell _did you run off to!?" Yang demanded as she grabbed the armrests of his chair and shook him back and forth.

"You know, if you put _roll _in that sentence instead of run, that pun would've been _perfect_."

" . . . Dammit!" Yang swore.

"Jack, are you alright?" Weiss asked as she fretted over him. "You're not hurt or anything, are you? I was _so _cross when I found out Blake completely misplaced you, I was ready to rip her a-."

"Relax, Milady," Jack cooed as he tapped the heiress on the nose. "I'm perfectly alright. Had a few choice words with some old friends of mine and we all went our merry ways. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about."

"_My cabbages!" _someone cried in the distance.

"Whelp! I think it's time we take our leave," Jack said hurriedly as he made to grab his wheels and roll of, Yang beating him to the punch by grabbing his handles and wheeling him off instead.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Because Jack had the foresight to remain in his swim trunks underneath his bathrobe and pajamas, all he needed help with really was stashing his clothes in a locker before letting the girls do their own thing. While Jack sat out by the sauna in his chair, this left Weiss, Blake, and Yang to change, now without squabbling to get in the way.

"So _Blake_…?"

"Yes, Yang?"

"You like what you see?" Yang asked as she stripped out of her clothing.

"I'm not into _girls_, Yang."

"Not _now_. This _morning_. When you and Jack shared a shower together," the blond re-iterated.

"Speak up, I don't think they heard you in _Vacuo_," Weiss huffed, Yang flinching as though struck.

"I didn't _see _anything, and neither did he. The two of us wore our swimsuits, and nothing happened," Blake deadpanned. "Speaking of which, you grabbed my suit, right?"

"Yep. Here you go," the blond said tossing Blake her one-piece from this morning. Now as naked as the day she was born, Yang proceeded to pull on an orange tank top bikini with red floral print, before wrapping a matching sarong around the bikini's bottom half exposing most of her left leg.

"Huh… Based on how you always dressed, I always assumed you'd wear something a little more… risqué," Blake hummed. Yand's day-to-day outfit _did _tend to show a lot of cleavage, midriff, and leg.

"You know the saying, it's better to conceal than it is to reveal," Yang said striking a number of poses in her very conservative swimwear, all of which accentuated her _natural _beauty without flashing an exceptionally-large amount of skin.

"That's nice and all, but would you mind handing me _my _swimsuit now? The drawer was labeled, so even _you _couldn't mess it up," Weiss stated.

"Sure, here you go," Yang said tossing Weiss a white bikini bottom with frills along the sides.

"Thank you," Weiss replied. " . . . Where's the _rest _of it?"

"Rest of what?"

"My _swimsuit _you dolt! It had matching frills on it!"

'_Probably to hide the fact that your chest's so small,' _Blake chuckled to herself.

"Ohhh… _That_… Couldn't find it," Yang shrugged.

"Whhhh_at_?!"

"So I got you the next best thing," Yang said tossing something to Weiss from her shoulder bag.

"A _dress _shirt? _What_?" Weiss gawped holding the garment up.

"Not just _any _dress shirt. One of _Jack's _dress shirts," Yang said with a grin, lifting one of the sleeves to her nose and taking a whiff of the cuff. "Mmmmm… Still has that honey-scented musk on it."

" . . . " Weiss could only tremble, holding back her rage at the infuriating blond before her.

"Mmmmmusk."

" . . . "

"Mmmmmmm_usk_."

"Stop saying 'musk'."

"Stop eating my _food_."

"When have I _ever _eaten anything of yours!?" Weiss demanded.

"Weiss, are you going to get dressed or not?" Blake asked.

"Get dressed? In _this_?" the heiress gawped.

"Well, it's either that or you go back to the dorm, 'cause by the time you get back, we'll probably be _done_."

" . . . Fine," the heiress huffed as she disrobed herself, slipping the bottom half of her bikini up her legs before shedding her clothes, carefully buttoning up the shirt Yang had acquired for her. As she got the button on the top fastened and worked on her cuffs, she noticed just how broad-shouldered Jack's clothes were, and how much open space there was around her slender neck. Looking at herself in the mirror, the heiress gave herself a once-over once she'd let her hair down, a small blush forming across her face as she thought about what _other _circumstance she might wear one of Jack's shirts in with only a pair of panties.

"Hey Weiss…?"

"What is it now, Yang?" Weiss asked as she undid the top button, flaring out the collar a little to show the smallest hint of cleavage.

"I was _joking _about the shirt thing. The other half of your bikini's right here," the blond said holding up the other half of the heiress' swimsuit, a band of frills going across the front. Realizing what the situation might look like out-of-context, Weiss' face slowly flushed red until she was glowing down to her shoulders. A moment later she snatched the top half of her swimsuit and dashed off to the changing room faster than any Glyph could've carried her.

"Wait… I thought _you _were trying to tap that," Blake said jabbing a thumb to the locker room exit, the sound of Jack pacing in his chair echoing faintly into the room.

"Oh, I still am."

"Then why are you trying to ship him with the _last _person who'd ever be interested in a Faunus?"

"If there's one thing I hate, it's when a girl isn't honest about her own feelings," Yang said adopting a serious pose. While it was good for her that Miltia only wanted something _casual _with Jack, it still really irked her that she was effectively using the Faunus as a placeholder until she could get a _Human _boyfriend to settle down and have kids with, just because she didn't want the stigma of giving birth to mixed-breed children.

"But don't you run the risk of losing him forever that way?" Blake asked. "I mean, what if the two of them have a natural chemistry that you _lack, _and he chooses her instead of you?"

Yang looked at her partner with a neutral expression for a few seconds before the corner of her lip turned up. A smirk soon pulling at her face, the corners of her eyes crinkled as she giggled, before she began to chuckle, which evolved into full-blown laughter, her head thrown back as her response to Blake's line of inquiry echoed all throughout the locker room.

"I can hear every word you're saying, you know!" Weiss growled through a crack in the changing room door.

Yang only proceeded to laugh louder as Weiss' light-blue eye proceeded to bore into the back of her skull.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I heard laughing in there. Did one of you tell a funny joke?" Jack asked a few minutes later.

"Yeah… You could say that," Yang replied with a grin as she wiped a tear from her eye, the heiress, now clad in her swimsuit proper, glowering at the lilac-eyed blond.

_'Go fuck yourself,' _the heiress growled in her mind. It was unladylike to use profanity, after all.

"You had to be there," Blake sighed as the lot of them entered the sauna, the walls and benches all a light-colored hardwood with a pit of stones in the center.

"So…" Yang hummed as she helped Jack out of his chair, Blake tossing some water onto the hot stones off to the side. "Are you some kinda _Sage _or what?"

"_Oh, so we're finally going to address that," _Blake hummed.

"Not _technically. _I've just undergone the sort of "conditioning" that people use to try and achieve enlightenment," Jack said as he drummed his fingers on his arm. "All things considered, I probably _could _do all that stuff my uncle can do before now, but the thing is none of it _clicked _until that near-death I had the other night."

"Huh…" Blake hummed. "Sounds legit," she shrugged.

"If I didn't already know about the Theory of Bio-Feedback, I'd say you were full of hot air," Weiss sighed, processing yet _another _facet of things that Jack Braxton was capable of which defied the convention of "normal". "And you swear you've _never _gone to any Combat School?"

"Not a _formal _one at least. Everything I learned I learned from family or on-the-job through trial-and-error."

"Right, just checking," Weiss sighed. _'It'd explain how someone as strong as him was able to slip under the radar for so long.'_

"All things considered, fame should _not _be used as a measure of strength," Blake hummed, a towel laid over her head to hide her ears, which were flattened against her head. "Pyrrha might be well-known in the tournament circuit, but it's feasible that people the same age who are even stronger than her live out on the Frontier and simply content themselves to defending their homes instead of making names for themselves."

"Sounds about right," Yang sighed as she stretched her arms above her head. "Uncle Qrow always _did _say a day on the Frontier was worth a week at a Combat School. I just didn't know how _literal _that was until now."

"I think your uncle just means that the _effort _to survive out there is several times greater than it is within the Kingdoms," Jack hummed. "Out on the Frontier, you always have to keep your guard up, always looking over your shoulder for Bandits or Grimm, or just some random person who doesn't like your face or wants what you have and is willing to kill you for it."

"It sounds like you speak from experience," Weiss said eyeing his body, most-notably the scars running down his arms and legs. _'Down, girl. Don't ogle that hot piece of male ass,' _she told herself as she squared her features, her eyes slowly scanning the contours of his muscular frame.

"You could say that," Jack said as he closed his eyes.

"Hey, don't nod off," Yang said ribbing him.

"I'm not. I'm meditating."

"_Noooo_, it's called _sleeping_. I can tell the difference."

'_So even a trip to the Sauna can't be something ordinary…' _Blake sighed as Weiss got into an argument about how meditating _could _be a state of rest.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Due to Weiss' stringent upholding of the rules-as-posed, after around half an hour, the heiress ushered everyone out, saying that over-exposure to the heated room could actually _cause _health complications instead of remedy them. Blake, already knowing the drill, cut Weiss and Yang off at the pass before they could start arguing, saying _she'd _be the one to help Jack back into his clothing. Given the girl was essentially a neutral third party, they both acquiesced to it.

"So, do you feel any better?" Blake asked as she helped Jack back into his PJs. His swimsuit was pretty much dry after the sauna.

"A little," Jack said grabbing the handlebars of his chair and pushing himself up for a few seconds, only to fall back into it. "I'm still really sluggish."

"I've never been poisoned before, so I have to ask… What does it feel like?"

"Like my body's swimming in _lead_. Heavy and unresponsive," Jack said exercising his fingers and flexing his claws out of habit. "My outer extremities feel a little better now, but I won't be walking again for a while yet. Hopefully by the end of the day, I'll be able to get in and out of this chair by myself."

"Why would you have to… Oh, right," Blake realized. "The poison has to go _somewhere _I suppose."

"Yeah. Asking for help into the shower is _one _thing, but asking for help onto the john is quite another."

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask. Your Semblance… couldn't you use _that _to regain your mobility, even if only briefly?"

"You mean my _Burst _of power?" the older Faunus asked with a raised eyebrow. "No, my power isn't the same as Yang's. While her _"Dragon Fire" _converts damage she takes into a strength boost, my own _Burst _acts as a power-multiplier instead of an additionary factor. However, multiplying my base power at-time in any capacity has always caused internal damages that took several days to fully recover from at the higher derivatives. With this poison in my system, I can barely use more than five percent of my body's full power, so any multiplier of _that _minimal amount of power wouldn't be worth the _recoil _it'd toll onto my body."

"Heh, listen to you. You sound like a full-blown Plasmologist," Blake chuckled at all the multiple-syllable words he was using. "You sure you didn't sneak another doctorate in while studying _Poultry Science_?"

"Hey, I'm not just a pretty face. There's also a sexy brain in here too," Jack chuckled as he tapped his temple. "You should see me after I do a Sudoku. My brain gets _ripped_!" he said with a grin as he flexed his muscles, only for his arms to tremble before falling back onto the handlebars. "Ugh… Getting poisoned is the worst," he grumbled as beads of sweat rolled down his forehead from the effort.

"Well, don't worry about it too much. It'll pass, and by the time you recover, your resistance to poisons should be even stronger," Blake said dabbing his forehead.

"Yeah, probably. Here's to hoping I don't get an allergic reaction, otherwise I'm _screwed_."

"Hey, with all the arguing that's been going around, I'm sure _someone _will be willing to rub ointment all over your body."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Jack sulked. "I hate feeling this weak and vulnerable. If I hadn't buried my nose in my studies every time I was out-of-action, I would've lost my mind by now."

"Oh? You mean you still have it?"

"Ha. Ha. Very funny."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Mmmmm! Man, that was refreshing!" Yang sighed as she stretched her arms above her head. "We should get the gang together and do this more often. That felt _great_!"

"It was not as extravagant as the one back home, but I will admit, it had a certain… _rustic _charm about it," Weiss admitted.

"What, did the one in your bathroom have gold-lined ivory seating?" Blake asked.

"H-How did you know about that?!" Weiss gawped.

"I didn't. I was joking," the bow-wearing girl said with a flat gaze.

"Oh…" the heiress slumped.

"So Jack, you feeling any better?" Yang asked leaning over to the Faunus.

"A little. The sweating flushed out _some _of the poison, but the detox is slow-going," Jack answered. "It _was _tailor made to slow me down without actually killing me, so this isn't something I _can _brush off like it was nothing."

"What if we consulted Professor Peach? Surely _he _has something that could help hasten your recovery," Weiss suggested, remembering the entire walls of shelves filled with specimens she saw in his class.

"Peach's specialty lies in _flora_, not fauna. Since the poison came from a _person, _ignoring the fact that it was generated by one of the Four Heavenly Kings' beneficial mutations, I doubt there's anything our teacher could contribute to Jack's recovery," Blake interjected.

"And you're _sure _that Coco's ability wasn't just a Semblance?" Weiss wondered.

"Yes, Weiss. We're sure. Just because _Dust _fuels every part of our lives doesn't mean Aura is the be-all-end-all," Jack huffed. "Why do you think so many veteran Huntsmen fail at becoming Gourmet Hunters in their golden years? It's because the rigors of fighting Grimm and Ingredients are completely different. Hunters might be able to navigate the Frontier like their own backyard, but higher-tier animals and plants made into food aren't nearly as _squishy _as Grimm."

"So how can _I _get Gourmet Cells like you and the other Four Kings then?" Yang asked. "If I had some of _that _action on top of my Semblance, I'd probably be _wicked _strong!" she said flexing her muscles.

"Mine awakened naturally in response to… my hunger," he said choosing his words, "so I didn't really pay much attention to the _how_…," Jack said as he was wheeled along, causing Yang to slump. "However… Since I'm a Gourmet Hunter, I can easily access this restricted information, and put you on the right path," he said fiddling with his Scroll.

"Why would something that could only _help _people be restricted?" Weiss asked. Toriko's strength was monstrous, yet there wasn't a drop of _Aura _in his system. If that kind of power could become more wide-spread, especially in the armed forces, even if it were only a _fraction _of Toriko's full power, maybe the Grimm wouldn't be such a problem and mankind could expand into a new Golden Age.

"Because it can do just as much _harm _as good, if not _more _harm than good," Jack said curtly as he finished accessing the IGO's servers thriugh his Scroll. "Alright, here we go… It says here that there are two known ways to infuse Gourmet Cells into a living being outside a natural evolution or _awakening_. The first and safest method is through Ingestion, where one must regularly take a pill or food item containing Gourmet Cells into their bodies, at which point the cells will begin to slowly conform and adapt to the consumer's body as they continue to eat them. However, this method takes far longer to have an effect on the body, and there are many cases where the cells are never able to adapt and give no physical enhancements to the consumer."

"So then it's _safe_, but not necessarily a guarantee?" Blake asked.

"So then the other one's a little risky?" Yang asked. "Well, hey, I'm a girl who likes her risks. Lay it on me."

"Yang, that kind of mentality is what gets people _killed_!" Weiss interjected.

"Quite right," Jack added. "The second method is through Injection, which involves directly injecting Gourmet Cells into the body via syringe, and while this method is the more dangerous of the two, it is in fact the fastest, as direct injection causes the injected cells to adapt faster and thus the time it takes for them to adapt to the body is overwhelmingly fast when compared to the safer method."

"Sweet!" Yang said with a grin, already imagining the kind of "power-up" she'd get from Gourmet Cells. Up inside her head, she was imagining herself with a very Toriko-like physique, with massively muscular feminine attributes to match her new stature. And also hair. Really, _really _big hair to match the surplus of _body _she possessed in her fantasy.

"However!" Jack interjected. "This method has many risks, for if the cells do not properly adapt, they begin to invade the body and mutate it, turning the injected individual into a horrific-looking monster, at the _best_. In the worst case it can kill the specimen outright," he said tapping a picture and holding up the Scroll to Yang. The pretty blond looked confused, but quickly recoiled in horror as Jack turned the Scroll right-side-up.

"GAAAH! What the hell!?" Yang shrieked at the monstrous abomination displayed, a green-skinned veiny humanoid creature in a cage with a pointy head, beady eyes, and sharp fangs. Also, it no longer possessed any defining genitalia. True, it also looked like something from a B-Rate movie, but the fact that it was _real _was what horrified her, since the creature in the picture looked like it was in excruciating pain.

"Indeed," Jack stated as he took back the Scroll and began to flip through it. "_Mutants _coming about are part of why this sort of treatment is restricted. In fact, many Frontier towns wishing to augment their effective military strength against Grimm or Bandits have actually wiped themselves off the map because many of them became Mutants and wound up killing one another. Anyone still left alive would've drawn in the Grimm, and rest, as Oobleck would say, is history."

"Well, the risk has gotta be worth _something_, right?" Yang asked, getting a flat look from Jack. "Hey, don't give me that look. I'll take the slow-and-safe way over the one that turns me into some B-Rate _creature feature _any day."

"If you _must _know…" Jack sighed, realizing Yang would keep pestering him until he relented. "When a living creature successfully adapts Gourmet Cells into their physiology, they gain overwhelming life force and power. Enhancements common to many implantees generally include extremely increased physical strength, speed, general athleticism, stamina, endurance, and senses _well above _the physical baselines of their respective species. As long as calories are available, the cells also grant incredible regenerative power, meaning a wound that'd kill an ordinary person would just be a slight hindrance to someone with Gourmet Cells. This amazing vitality is often reflected in their appearance, as the vast majority of implantees tend to possess incredibly muscular physiques."

"You mean like Toriko and Coco?" Yang asked.

"Not quite _that _large. The two of them became that large because of both their Gourmet Cells, and through their own efforts to become stronger. They're known as the Four Heavenly Kings for a reason, after all."

"And the success ratios of the treatments?" Weiss felt compelled to ask.

"That information is restricted to Gold-Rank and above," Jack answered as a large **DENIED** banner imposed itself on his screen. "What _isn't _restricted, is that Gourmet Cells also have extremely high energy demands, so users must frequently consume large amounts of food, lest the cells begin to uncontrollably devour the body at a cellular level. The more-delicious the better."

"But wait a minute, I've _never _seen you eat the way that Toriko did, and from the way he acted, that veritable _mountain _of food he ate was just a _snack _to him," Weiss interjected.

"That's because I've undergone Knocking Therapy from a specialist. While suppressing the amount of power my body is able to express, it also lowers my inherent energy requirements, so I can get more mileage out of less food."

"But why would you make yourself _weaker _like that?" Yang asked. "If you were any _stronger_, you could probably graduate _early _or something."

"First off, can _you _imagine how expensive it would be to eat like Toriko does all day, every day, for every meal?" Jack asked with a flat stare.

"Uhhhh…" Yang hummed, imagining a steadily-growing mountain of food in her head that quickly eclipsed even the highest towers of Beacon. "Yeah, I guess I see what you mean by that."

"And secondly… I'm in a good place right now. Why would I want to skip out on all _this _early?" Jack asked gesturing to Beacon, and then to the people gathered in front of him.

"Awwwww," Yang cooed.

"So do these _beneficial mutations _like what Toriko and Coco possessed also include lasers?" Weiss asked getting back to the original topic.

"Uh… _Lasers_?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. _Lasers_! You shot golden energy beams out of your mouth at Toriko and Coco when you were fighting them. And us too!"

"You mean I actually externalized my Appetite Energy back then?" Jack asked.

"You didn't already know that?!"

"Hey, hey, ease up, Weiss. Jack wasn't exactly… _himself _at the time," Yang interjected.

"It's understandable," Blake commented. "Plus, this isn't exactly the sort of thing we should freely be talking about."

" . . . You're right," Weiss sighed, realizing the number of bystanders around. "But still, you honestly don't _remember _fighting like that? Atlas has been working for _years _to create weapons with that kind of destructive power in such a small package, and even now we've only been getting diminished returns on those endeavors."

Recently-discovered veins of Orange Dust were able to generate lasers, and their energized equivalents, _Neon _Orange, could make hard-light constructs. However, actually _harnessing _that technology was still limited largely to hologram-emitting diodes, commonly seen in street signs and holo-TVs.

"It was hazy, and from what little I've heard on the topic, the manipulation of Appetite Energy isn't an automatic consequence of _having _Gourmet Cells in your body. Even very powerful individuals with strong Gourmet Cells are only able to _semi_-consciously manifest a degree of Appetite Energy on the instinctual level. At _best_," Jack answered. "Truly _mastering _that kind of power requires conscious manipulation and a taxing degree of mental control, and that is years if not _decades _outside my ken."

"Just don't tell _Pyrrha _about that. Knowing there are all these strong people out there might give her some kind of complex," Yang chuckled.

"If anything it'll only make her want to train harder to get even stronger," Blake interjected. "I think I saw her take Jaune out running the other day after some warmup exercises. You should probably get better soon before she closes the gap on you."

"Oh don't worry. Red won't be closing the gap between us _any _time soon."

"And what exactly is _that _supposed to mean?" Weiss asked.

"What indeed? What indeed."

"Come along, Doctor Dubious," Yang chuckled as Jack cryptically drummed his fingers together like a stereotypical super-villain. "Now that we're all freshened up, there's one more place I want to take you before we're done for the day."

"And where might that be?" Weiss asked.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"The library," Yang replied a few minutes later.

"_Is it weird that Yang waited until just _now_ to answer her question?" _Blake asked.

"_A little. I mean, that sort of thing only works in media with Scene Transitions of some kind," _Jack whispered back.

"So… Why are _you _of all people bringing Jack here? Last time we were here you wouldn't stop groaning and moaning until I let you leave," Weiss said, referencing their study-sessions for Finals.

"Well…" Yang hummed as she wheeled Jack inside. "At first I was going to ask Jack if he should cut his hair, but then I realized I was probably the _last _person to talk to someone else about cutting their hair."

"Yes, obviously," Weiss returned.

"And then when I saw him move his hair like some kind of fifth limb, or _sixth _if you catch my drift~" she said waggling her eyebrows.

"_Ugh, gross,"_ Blake grumbled.

"I remembered a book I happened upon a while back that would be just _perfect _for the two of us."

"If prior to this the book in question was perfect for just _you_, why have you waited until just _now _to check it out?" Weiss asked.

"Because we were studying for Finals and I didn't want any unneeded distractions."

"Says the girl who got a B-minus across the board for Finals."

"A _solid _B-minus," Yang interjected as they approached the front desk. "Yo, Nodoka, I didn't know you were manning the front desk today."

"O-Oh. Hello, Yang. It's n-nice to see you again," the girl behind the desk greeted shyly. She was a young woman with very light-colored skin who appeared to be around the same age as Yang, Mistrali in descent like Ren, her shoulder-length deep violet blue hair brushed down in a "helmet" style that left the majority of her face hidden, a single dark blue eye poking out between the bangs on the left side of her face. Her attire consisted of the Beacon Academy girls' uniform, with the addition of a violet-colored blazer thrown over her shoulders.

"Yang, how do you know this girl?" Weiss asked, considering how Nodoka was the polar opposite of Yang. The girl was barely over five feet tall and a B-Cup on top of that with a small petite frame, and if she weren't listening intently, she would've sworn the girl hadn't said anything _at all_. The heiress also realized, much to her dismay, that this was yet _another _girl with a larger cup size than herself, even if just barely.

"Nodoka here's a friend of mine from back at Signal. We weren't super-_close _or anything, but I'd chase off any of the boys giving her trouble, and she'd help me out with my homework in exchange," Yang explained. "So… How's the bookkeeping been going? Is working at Beacon everything you ever dreamed it would be? You know, biggest library in the Kingdom and all that."

"Y-Yes. Very much so," Nodoka replied. "I'm still not really comfortable at the front desk, but I can't complain," she said before taking notice of the Faunus in the wheelchair. "O-Oh. It's nice to see you again, J-Jack," she said nervously.

"Hey. How's it going?"

"I-I'm fine, thank you for a-asking," the girl said fidgeting slightly.

"Why _Jack _you sly badger you. I didn't know you were into the shy bookworm type," Yang said with a grin. And also a twitch of her brow.

"I-It's not what you think!" the bookworm blurted out, only to quickly shush herself, before blushing in embarrassment a moment later. "He-he just saved my life is all."

"What? When? Are you hurt? What happened?" Yang asked in full-blown mother hen mode.

"Uh… Um…" the girl said nervously. "J-Jack, would you like to take over?"

"Well…" Jack hummed as he drummed his fingers on his armrest. "Back during Finals I was on my way to the Library to get some reading done when I saw Nodoka passing by the CCT with a big stack of books in her arms. I was a little worried she was going to trip and hurt herself from being so loaded down when, lo and behold, a gust of wind sent her right over the side of the steps. Poor girl would've busted her head open on the way down if I hadn't dropped what I was doing and grabbed her. After that I helped her get her books back to her place, and the rest is history."

"Oh, well, I'm glad nothing came of it... Nothing _bad _came of it!" she amended.

"Well… Ruby was a little ticked that I dropped the cookies she sent me to get from the school store," Jack amended, getting weird looks from everyone. "What? I _did _say I dropped what I was doing to catch her. That girl is _not _a fan of crumbled cookies."

"So _that's _why she wouldn't speak to you for the rest of the day," Weiss hummed.

"A-Anyway, did you need something in particular?" Nodoka said turning back to Yang.

"Yeah, you remember that book I asked you to hold onto until I was done with finals?"

"Y-Yes, I do."

"Well, I'd like you to pull it off the reserved shelf, if that's alright with you."

"O-Of course. I'll be back in just a moment," Nodoka said walking off.

"Nice girl," Jack commented. "Shame about her androphobia though."

"Oh? And how do you know about _that_?" Yang gritted out.

"It's just something that came up on the way to her place," Jack shrugged. "Something about wanting a boyfriend but being too scared to approach him."

"_I wonder why _that _is,"_ Yang huffed.

"Look, I doubt it's me if _that's _what you're grouping at. We only knew one another for a few minutes, and I never saw her again until just now."

"Hmhm, looks like red isn't the _only _color your eyes turn," Weiss chuckled in light of Yang's fit of jealousy.

"Bite me, white-out," Yang snarled back.

"I-I'm back," Nodoka said coming back with a brown leather-bound book in her hands. "I'll get this checked out for you, and I'll let you be on your way."

"Thanks for the help," Yang said passing her library card. "Maybe later we can get the gang back together and hit up the nightclub for a couple drinks."

"Y-You know I'm not _comfortable _at those kinds of places," she meekly replied.

"Hey, don't worry about it. If anybody tries getting fresh with you, I'll give 'em the five-finger special," she said raising a clenched fist.

"Th-Thank you. I hope you have a nice day," Nodoka replied with a bow of her head as Yang tucked the book under her arm.

"You too," Yang replied with a smile as she wheeled Jack off to one of the reading areas, Weiss and Blake following after.

"She seemed nice," Blake hummed.

"Yeah. You _two'd_ probably get along. You both like books and all."

"Books aren't the _only _thing I like."

"Yeah. You also like _porn _too," Yang said jokingly.

"It isn't _porn_! It's adult literature!"

_***SSHH!***_

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that," Yang said with a wave of her hand as she moved a couple chairs beside and wheeled Jack up to the table.

"So what's in this book that you had the foresight to reserve so meticulously?" Weiss asked as Yang set said book down. It was bound in brown leather, bordering on near-black, the image of an oriental dragon flying in a circle catching up to its tail pressed into the front. Within the center of that circle was a whirlpool-like design, with six shiny metal-accented stars caught in the flow.

"One half martial arts guide, one half spiritual-awakening mumbo-jumbo," Yang said turning past the preface and to the first page. On the left page was the blackened silhouette of a human body, wisps of white energy flowing from their form amidst a blue halo surrounding them. On the right was a set of calligraphy-styled words going vertically down the center of the page in horizontal lines.

**Six Ki Point Spiraling Art**

**This art is composed  
of six different segments;  
Bu, Chim, Heo, Shil, Ji, Sak.**

**Each segment is…**

_*Turn*_

**BU**

**A sharp and swiftness…**

On the right page apart from the **Bu** there was the water-based painting of a red-eyed woman with a heart-shaped face, wearing a red kimono with a white two-tailed sash, billowing white pants, and red slippers, her ebony tresses braided into long tails that coiled around a pair of oxtails at the sides of her head before falling down past her face and ending in little loops bound by red ribbon. Her pose was that of a powerful-looking right-handed knife strike that seemed to shatter the very air.

_*Turn*_

**CHIM**

**With a Blunt Force to overwhelm the opponent…**

This image was of the same woman blocking an attack from over her left shoulder, her left sleeve a blur as it moved with tremendous power to block the unseen attack.

_*Turn*_

**HEO**

**And the quick and blurry irregular movement…**

The same woman appeared again in this picture, only now there were two of her. The one in the background was zipping to the left side of the page, the right side of her body a blur, while the one in the foreground was moving to the right side of the page, her left body a blur. The illustration was done so as to make it appear there were two of the same woman.

_*Turn*_

**SHIL**

**To deliver unparalleled force with each hit…**

This image was of her raising her left fist parallel across her shoulders in a powerful strike that seemed to make the air itself quiver, a look of utter concentration painted across her minimialistically-accented face.

_*Turn*_

**JI**

**While maintaining a center of gravity and concentration…**

The following image was an extreme close-up of the kimono-clad woman intercepting a strike from an individual whose only visible feature was a violet-colored sleeve. His right elbow was being bent to the left side of the page by the woman's swift left-handed strike, while his wrist was being bent in the opposite direction by the woman's left hand going to the right.

_*Turn*_

**SAK**

**All this is allowed by connecting all the foundation movements continually by the user…**

Vastly different in nature than the previous images, this one was more metaphysical in nature. A light blue halo of light in the middle of the page, white-colored streaks of light amidst shining motes like flower petals danced around in an irregularly-moving spiral, yet the movement of the single line seemed perfectly natural despite its many conflicting vectors.

_*Turn*_

**Thus… defining what the Byul Chun Lim's Art really is…**

**The Six Ki Point Spiraling Art.**

The picture in this page was by _far _the most dynamic of any seen on the previous entries. The red and white-clothed woman, fighting a black-haired man wearing violet and purple-colored period-appropriate attire, had just been thrown to the ground back-first, an explosion of white light from the point of impact, as well as the ring from the resulting sonic boom surrounding the two, seeming to hint at the overwhelming force being delivered in a single strike which was the cultivation of six conflicting techniques. At least if the spider-web of cracks fanning out across the craggy stone ground was anything to go by.

"Yikes. That last one looked like it hurt," Jack hissed seeing the last picture of what was most-likely the prologue.

"I know, _right_?" Yang asked excitedly. The bulk of her style consisted of boxing, street fighting, with only a hint of kickboxing to just barely round out the style. She'd wanted to expand her repertoire, she really did, but her combat-coursed friends from Beacon had fighting styles so radically different from their own or overly-specialized, none of what they could do seemed to really mesh with her own.

"And you thought this book would be perfect for the two of us _how _exactly?" Jack asked. "To be honest, I'm worried these are all just vague metaphors for some kind of Kama-Sutra-esque _sex guide_."

"Well it's _not_!" Yang said in a hushed tone. "Sex and sex appeal isn't the _only _thing I think about, you know."

"Says the girl I caught at my bedside with a flashlight and a ruler," Jack quipped, causing a blush to flare across the blond's nose.

"Please get back to the topic at hand here," Weiss urged as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "We're starting to get _looks_."

"Right, right, back to the point," Yang said steering the conversation back to the original vector. Flipping past multiple pages describing both kata and seemingly the philosophy of both the techniques and life itself _outside _the art, she finally got to the part she was looking for. "Alright, here we go. _This _is why I thought the book would be just as perfect for Jack as it was for me. After recent developments of course," she said as she passed the book to Jack.

**There are six Ki Points that make up the human body.**

**By using these six Ki Points, one can freely control their Ki which allows them to fully utilize their physical potential.**

**That is the renowned art of Byul Chun Lim, the Six Point Spiral Art.**

**When Ki is distributed to every corner of one's Body, the user creates an internal barrier-like force that can be used in bursts, thus allowing them to make incredibly powerful attacks.**

**But even through the Six Ki Points, there are parts of the body which the Ki could not reach, and that is… the hair.**

**So to further improve the Six Point Spiral Art, an idea came to develop something that uses the Six Ki Points to its full potential by furthering its reach even to the user's hair.**

**When one's Ki is fully manifested throughout the user's body and hair, the sight of their hair flaunting would resemble a dragon dancing in the skies, thus earning its name as the Byul Chun Dragon Art.**

"Hm…" Jack hummed as he read the passages. "The _Six Points _that this book mentions _do _sound an awful lot like a reference to Qi, or Chi, the foundational principles of Chinese medicines and martial arts. Adding into it that there are _six _of them, and it sounds like a further reference to _Chakras _in Hinduism, centers of spiritual power throughout the body."

"It _does _sound a bit like a guide to holistic medicine," Blake hummed. While people _tried _to treat the research of Aura as a science, especially since it could be electronically quantified, there were still many in the scientific community that believed what was being measured wasn't _actually _the soul, but a form of bioelectricity, or some sort of "psychokinetic barrier" that "mentally awakened" people were able to manipulate. Because of this, there wasn't actually any sort of _unified _research institute for the study of Aura, any established research cells ranging from the application of science to spirituality to pseudo-science.

"Yeah, but the _picture _is what really sells it for me," Yang said pointing to a prominent set of pages. They depicted the same red-and-white-clad woman as before carrying out a powerful strike, her hands concealed by her long sleeves, followed by an illustration of her side profile, her long ebony tresses fluttering in the wind behind her. But what was even more-powerful than that was the image of an unknown woman with a black sleeveless top and red arm-sleeves up to the bicep, a long ribbon of jet-black hair billowing into the foreground, her hair depicted as possessing a powerful-looking set of dragon legs and talons, while in the background separate from the hair was a jet-black dragon with red eyes, antlers, and a silver pearl clutched in its mouth.

"Huh… I guess that _is _a little more clear-cut," Jack acknowledged, as turning away from the paintings, there were depictions of how moving one's hair could enable one to strike at normally-inaccessible weak points in an enemy's stance.

"Yeah, and because you can make your hair move around, just like in the book, I figured you and I could learn a lot from this. Maybe you give me a couple pointers," Yang said with a smile.

"Yang, I was _sleeping _at the time, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to make my hair move like that while I'm still awake," Jack hummed.

"The immaculately-made detail in this book… This looks like a first-edition print of a translation," Weiss said as she looked at it. "Where exactly did you say you found this?"

"Don't remember. It was on some aisle somewhere. I was originally looking for a botany book for Peach's class, dropped it by accident, and when I bent down to pick it up, I found this little guy hiding under the lip of the bottom shelf, covered in an inch of dust," Yang said patting the book in her hands.

"And you decided to bring me in on this because of the hair-moving aspect of it?" Jack asked with a raised brow.

"Well, _yeah_. I mean, Weiss was toast as soon as she got _locked _into your _lochs,_" she said with a cheeky grin. The next few seconds was punctuated by the sound of a cricket's chirping.

"Once again, I should re-iterate that I was _asleep _when I put Weiss in some kind of Hair Lock. Just because some of my uncle's lessons started to _click_, doesn't mean I'll be up to that kind of dexterity when I'm _awake_."

"Well, that's what getting extensions on this check-out is for," Yang acknowledged as she closed the book.

"Fair point," Jack said with a nod. "Just don't get upset if there aren't any immediate returns on this. Prodigy or not, applying this kind of technique to yourself will take a lot of time and practice."

"And of course, you can't let your _schoolwork _suffer as a consequence," Weiss added. "I'm all for bettering yourself, but you have to build all of that upon a strong foundation. A castle built on sand is doomed to topple."

"Hey, we've got the next four years together before we graduate. I'm sure we can make some time for this," Yang said with a smile.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Ah, home sweet home," Yang sighed as the group of four returned to the student dorm.

"You sound like a grizzled old war veteran," Jack chuckled as Yang stretched her arms above her head.

"Yeah. We didn't even do anything that _strenuous _today," Blake stated.

"I beg to differ," Weiss shuddered, remembering the way Jack contorted his body during breakfast at Nora's behest.

"Speaking of which…" Blake said catching onto Weiss' hidden meaning. "Is that Team Juniper over there?" she asked pointing to the student lounge.

"Yeah, I think it is," Yang nodded. "Hey guys! Over here!"

"Oh!" Jaune said sitting up before sauntering over to them. "Hello, ladies~" he said bushing his hair back in an attempt to be suave. "Jack."

"Trash."

"Hello, again," Pyrrha greeted with a smile as she cut through the tension between the two males. "How are you feeling, Jack?"

"A little bit better. Still a bit sluggish though," the Faunus replied, completely dismissing Jaune glaring holes into the back of his head. "It'll still be a while before I'm back up to one-hundred percent, but I should be back in peak form in time for Sports Day at the end of the week."

"I'm glad. The two of us haven't really had a chance to compete since our spar. I'm looking forward to going up against you again," the red-head said with a smile.

"Sure, me too," Jack replied. _'I guess,' _he added as an after-thought. "So Nora, Ren, anything good on TV?"

"Well… I'm still learning how to pirate TV signals from other countries so…" Nora huffed as she read a bright yellow copy of **Pirating TV for Dummies**, a pair of coke bottle glasses comically placed over her nose as though doing so would make her smarter.

Hell, with the way her mind worked it probably _did_. That or she wasn't as dumb as she let on to be.

"We're mostly channel-surfing," Ren commented as he pressed the button.

_***Click***_

"-disaster strikes Vale as-"

_***Click***_

"Work that body, work that body, make sure you don't hurt nobody~"

"Wait! Go back!" Yang shouted, Ren reversing the channel-surfing course until they hit the news.

"-rogue robots rampage," Lisa Lavender narrated from the news studio, the graphic of a rogue robot in the upper left corner of the screen.

"Turn it up!" Yang ordered.

"All civilians are urged to evacuate to the nearest disaster shelters. If this is not possible, stay indoors, lock your doors, and if applicable, retreat to a basement or similar room until the immediate crisis passes. Vale police and other rescue services will attempt to resolve this conflict as swiftly as possible-"

"Oh my god! _Ruby _went to Vale today!" Yang cried as various footage of ruined city streets and infrastructure was shown. "We need to get on an airship and _help_ her! Somebody get us tickets for an airship!"

"On it!" Jack said tapping at his Scroll. "Um… Bad news, Yang. Access to the Airships has been restricted until the crisis passes."

" . . . WHAT?!" the blond cried as she went red-eyed and the room's temperature spiked.

"Hey, don't take it out on the _cripple_!" Jack shouted as the blond shook him by the armrests of his chair.

"Alright, new plan!" Yang said changing her tune. "Jack and I will get on our respective modes of transport and take one of you apiece down the land route to Vale's south side! After that, we hone in on Ruby's Scroll signature, swoop in, and wreck some _shit_!"

"Um, slight _problem_ with that!" Weiss interjected. "One of us is currently in a wheelchair, and the only other bike we have access to only seats _two_!"

"On top of that, the land route is really curvy, and by the time we get down there, _and _catch up to Ruby, this might already be resolved in advance," Blake interjected.

"Alright, _new _new plan! Jack will stay behind, and the three of _us _will take my Bumblebee to town!" Yang stated.

"Your bike can only seat two, at _best_! Putting three of us on that thing would turn it into a screaming metal deathtrap!" Weiss interjected.

"Um… _new _new _new _plan-"

"NO!" Weiss and Blake shouted in a rare moment of unity, neither wishing to die atop a screaming metal deathtrap on a curvy mountain road.

"Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do for Ruby, but if you got involved in _every _problem-area she found herself in, she won't make it very far as a Huntress. Prodigy or not, a lack of experience can get you killed just as easily as a _non_-prodigy… And I doubt she's dumb enough to throw her life away on a battle she could just as easily run away from," Jack interjected.

"Do you not _remember _how Ruby almost got killed by a Deathstalker!?" Yang demanded.

"_Bitch_, I was not even there, and QUIT YELLING IN MY FACE!"

"_If Ruby _does _somehow get involved, do you think she can handle it?" _Blake asked Weiss worriedly as the two screamed at one another.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Elsewhere in the city of Vale…**

"WE… CANNOT… HANDLE THIS!" Ruby screamed as she held onto a lamp post for dear life while fighting gale-force winds. "EYAAAAAAAGH!" she screeched as her grip failed and she flailed her arms wildly through the air.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Meanwhile back at Beacon…**

"_I'd give her a _soft-maybe_," _Weiss stated as a sense of dread washed over her.

"_Sounds about right," _Blake sighed.

" . . . Does anyone feel like we've been suddenly delegated to the background like un-important side-characters in a story surrounding the events of an indirectly-referenced titular protagonist?" Nora asked looking up from her book.

"Who are you and what have you done with Nora?" Jaune asked in light of all the high-tier vernacular displayed.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After Yang and Jack finished screaming at one another _for _screaming at one another, after a liberal amount of Cyan Dust was applied to _cool _their heels, calmer heads were allowed to prevail.

"Weiss, mommy and daddy aren't _fighting _anymore, so could you please let us out?" Yang asked as she found herself up to her neck in a block of ice.

"This does _nothing _to help my condition," Jack huffed from similar straits.

"Don't take that tone with me, Ms. Xiao Long," Weiss huffed as she stabbed the ice at the base of Jack's wheelchair and set the Faunus free, Blake coming over and draping a blanket over his shoulders. "You're much too hot-headed for your own good."

"Hey, puns are _my _shtick!"

"The point I'm trying to make is, airship access has been restricted for a _reason_," Weiss capitulated. "Obviously, the faculty doesn't want any unnecessary bodies making things difficult for the authorities in this time of crisis, and we need to respect that."

"But Ruby-"

"Will be alright on her own. And even if she isn't, she said she's be with _friends _today, didn't she? I'm sure she's safe and sound, well away from danger."

"Do you _honestly _believe that?"

"Like it or not, Ruby is my leader. I _have _to believe in her. And you should too."

" . . . "

"I'm going to release you from the ice now. Do you promise not to flip out on me?"

A nod was what the heiress received in return.

"Very well."

Another stab of her rapier and the slab of ice holding the blond captive swiftly melted into water and then into steam, leaving no trace of her former captivity.

_***Whack***_

"What the hell, Yang?!" Weiss demanded as she held her nose.

"_What_?" Yang asked. "You said not to flip out on you. That isn't flipping out on you." The next moment she proceeded to do a back flip, landing a few feet away. "_That_, is flipping out on you," she said flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Yang. Even for _you _that was terrible wordplay," Jack deadpanned.

"Hey!"

"So… What do we do now?" Blake wondered.

"Um…" Yang hummed. "I guess we just relax until Ruby gets back," she said with a shrug.

"That'd probably be for the best," Weiss said holding her nose.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The bulk of Team RWBBY opting to relax and let whatever was happening in Vale sort itself out, confident that Ruby would give them a call if she _really _needed help, got some much-needed relaxation in to cope from the recent happenings. Weiss studied advanced Dust Manipulation from a text she brought with her from her homeland, Blake was off maintaining her weapons at the side, Yang was studying heavily from the Six Points Spiraling Art text she'd gleaned from the library, and Jack opted to sleep some more of the poison off. If it weren't for the occasional twitch of a brow or a curling of the lip, they would've mistaken his death-like slumber for actual _mortal _death.

"Huh…" Blake hummed as she looked up from polishing the edge of her cleaver. "Jack might be one of the most eccentric guys I've ever met, but when he's sleeping, he actually looks pretty… _normal_."

'_Are we really going to talk about him like he isn't here again?' _Weiss wondered.

"Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" Yang asked. "When I think about all his stories, and how much he traveled, it always seems like he's a hundred miles away from the rest of us, but when he's like _this_, it really doesn't seem like we're all that different."

'_Okay, yes, so that's what we're going to be doing it seems,' _Weiss sighed, realizing she wasn't going to get any reading done. "Though the invisible wall between Human and Faunus separates us, we are all descended of Etro's blood, and equal in Bhunivelze's eyes," she said off-handedly.

"Whoa, girl, that sounded like something straight out of Faunus scripture," Yang said in awe. "I didn't take you for a _believer_."

"I'm not saying I am or am not," Weiss huffed. "I'm just saying… I'm willing to open my mind to alternative possibilities is all," she said closing her book. "Most Humans tend to believe in The Tale of the Two Brothers in addition to whatever religious denomination they may be a part of, but until I met Jack, I never really had the _opportunity _to learn about Faunus religious beliefs. Any interactions that Faunus ever had with me tended to be… _antagonistic _in nature."

"Oh, like you and Jack weren't at each others _throats_ until just recently," Yang chuckled.

"At least our little princess is growing up," Blake sighed with a small smile on her face.

"I'm not a princess, I'm an _heiress_," Weiss huffed.

"Is that why Jack started calling you _Milady_~?" Yang cooed as she waggled her eyebrows, causing a streak of red to blossom across the heiress' face.

"You all know I can hear you, right?" Jack asked as he cracked an eye open.

"Oh! Jack! I'm so sorry!" Blake apologized, realizing _she _had been the one to break the silence that time instead of Weiss or Yang.

"It's fine," Jack grumbled as he sat up, flexing his arms and clenching his fists. "Well… Seems like _some _of the poison's been filtered out of my system," he said as he rolled out of bed and onto the floor, before he began snake-crawling towards the bathroom. "Yang, get my chair ready. As soon as I'm done in the John, I'd like to go get some fresh air."

"Do you want some help getting onto the can?" Yang asked.

"No. No. I'm fine. I'm strong enough to do just this, is all," Jack said as his feet disappeared through the doorway, before it was nudged shut with his foot.

"It's probably for the best he does this by himself," Blake hummed as she went back to her weapons. "If you and Weiss started bickering again, we might get _noise _complaints."

_***WHUMP***_

"_Blaaaaake…?" _Jack called out. _"I've fallen and can't get up."_

" . . . God dammit Jack," Blake groaned as she set her gear down and stomped over to the bathroom.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After the embarrassing debacle that was Blake helping a still-partially-paralyzed Jack onto the toilet after he failed to pull himself up, the Faunus was loaded onto his wheelchair, and Yang took him out for some fresh air. Apparently, while Blake was otherwise indisposed, Ruby had called Yang to say that she was coming back to Beacon soon, thus the two brawlers of the team had decided to meet back up with her at the airfield.

Eventually, the two arrived at where they'd first disembarked so long ago, Jack asking to be wheeled close to the cliff itself so he could listen to the soothing rush of the waterfall below. While worried about what might happen, Yang decided to humor the Faunus, wheeling him forward as much as she felt safe before locking the brakes on his chair.

"It's a nice view, isn't it?" Jack asked as he looked out onto the river, the sun setting off in the distance.

"Yeah… It sure is," Yang said as she took a seat beside him. "Jack? Just how big is the world outside the Kingdoms?"

"Well…" Jack hummed as he drummed his fingers on the armrest of his wheelchair. "It's a matter of perspective really. Are you talking literally, or the metaphorical sense? Because either/or, the world of Remnant and what lies beyond it is _massive _compared to what little tracts of land each Kingdom is able to claim as its own."

"So… _that _big, huh?" Yang asked, realizing just how small Patch and even _Vale _were compared to the world that Jack claimed frequently to have wandered.

"Probably."

"I see," Yang hummed as she hugged her knees to her chest. "Hey Jack? Say you knew something, a _secret _that someone had the right to hear, but you weren't sure if you were supposed to tell them or not because it might hurt them in the end… What would someone do in that situation?"

"If you're talking about what happened yesterday after I got sucked into the Crimson Orb, I already have an idea of what you're talking about."

"What?! Y-You do!?" Yang gawped as she jumped up to her feet. "H-How much do you actually _remember_?"

"Hmmm… About half-and-half, to be honest," Jack admitted. "Most of what I _heard _was shouts demanding death and vengeance from the wronged and deceased in my ears and a red, _murderous_ haze over my eyes. As for what _I _was doing… It was like watching things play out from the passenger seat of a monster truck. Front-row seat to the carnage, and powerless to change the course," he answered. "The woman who was murdered at that site… She was one of many who'd been killed in the same way, and dumped like trash with their tragedies covered up by the Humans-in-power since, with the Vytal Festival so close, it'd make Vale look really bad to have known-cultists running around on killing sprees. All of that regret gathered into one place was immensely powerful, too powerful for anything made by the hands of Man to destroy… So in order to lay their souls to rest and remove the Crimson Orb from the playing board, I had to take their burdens onto my shoulders."

"And by that, you mean their _unfinished business_?" Yang asked warily.

"Yang, if _you _were violently murdered and/or _raped_, not necessarily in that order," Jack glared causing the blond to flinch, "would _you _hesitate from cursing the perpetrator from beyond the grave and wishing for them to suffer before burning in Hell?"

"I… can't really say, honestly," the blond answered. "I've… sure, I've gotten _mad _at people, even got a little physical with them," she said clenching her fists. "But to actually _curse _them? Want them to suffer before they died? I don't really know how that feels."

"Well, that's _all _those poor women felt as their life slipped through their fingers like sand in an hourglass," Jack said as he pinioned a gaze at the city of Vale. "Vale might be pretty from a distance, even a _paradise _for some compared to the hardships of living in the Frontier… But beneath the shining veneer, there's an unmistakable _wickedness_. An evil worse than any Grimm lurking in every dark corner and crevice. You were born a Human into a loving family with protectors watching over you 'til you were strong enough to defend yourself, so you probably never had any _reason _to see the world like that, but make no mistake… In terms of good and evil, Bandits aren't the _only _wickedness living in our world. And even _if _the Grimm didn't exist, I doubt any of the _other _problems plaguing our world would up and go away."

"And… the reason you lashed out at us?"

"Like I said, there was a bit of a red haze in front of my eyes," Jack said waving a hand in front of his face. "Back then, the four of you looked like monsters and killers, because to the women whose souls made up the Crimson Orb, that's all they ever _knew _in their final moments. There were no thoughts of friends, or family, or even the future. Only the monsters that lapped up their suffering like sweet nectar before being bothered to just _end _things. And most of the time, it wasn't _clean _like you'd see in the movies."

"But you were still able to hold yourself back…"

"Because amidst the chaos-the storm in my mind, I was able to grasp a few moments of lucidity," Jack said tapping the side of his head. "Nothing they _teach _you at school can ever prepare you for weathering that kind of malice. That sort of thing only comes with experience, and I have _plenty _of it."

"So then… What would've happened if you _didn't _get revenge for those women?" Yang asked, wondering what to think knowing Jack had _knowingly _committed murder. She wasn't about to condemn him for what happened, not with all he had been through. Or what his mother and unborn sister had gone through either.

"Their souls would've continued to languish in that twisted little knot of suffering, nothing would've changed for them, and the Crimson Orb would've remained exactly where it was until Vale was completely overrun by Grimm drawn to the negative energy it perpetuated. End of story," Jack said matter-of-factly. "Regardless of whether or not a few of the _white trash _got away, I was still able to free the women from the shackles of despair that bound them to this world, and now they've returned to the Chaos, awaiting rebirth into their next lives."

"So your religion has a reincarnation cycle?" Yang asked, hoping to step away from _gloomier _topics.

"The beliefs of Faunus religion vary just as much as Human faith does, and it's just as _divided _as Humans'," Jack answered. "The majority of the Faunus you'll ever meet will be stout worshipers of Bhunivelze, the divine creator of all things, and live freely in the world that is his prominence, guided only by the morals of their predecessors since Bhunivelze was a bit of a _hands-off _deity. Others worship Hallowed Pulse as the Maker of the World, and will live a very humble lifestyle taking from the land only which they need to live. Some will worship Fell Lindzei for his role in the invocation and encouragement of creativity and innovation through the power of the mind, and most of them will often be scientists or mathematicians, or _any _profession that deals heavily in a strong mental acuity."

"And _you?_" Yang asked. "You said you worshiped Etro, right?"

"Yeah… That's where things get _iffy _in Faunus religion," Jack said as he interlaced his fingers together. _"Come, pity poor Etro, she was left all alone. Her blood pouring forth, in Chaos to atone. Queen of Nothing, Goddess of Death-so let her be known," _he recited, eyes as though seeing something unseen. "What you just heard was a nursery rhyme about Etro, who within the realm of divinity is the _black sheep _of the family. The _accident. _The unwanted step-child who no-one wanted around. While it's true that she protects the balance between the mortal world and the afterlife, contextually, she's demonized as the one who will lead you astay. The abhorrent goddess of the afterlife."

"And this was because she resembled Bhunivelze's mother, Mwynn, right?"

"In a sense, yes. Though because everyone's telling of the world's creation varies so differently, who loved and hated whom, and how _much_, are always up to conjecture. That a great deal of our _physical _scripture was destroyed well before the Faunus Wars only complicates matters further," he sighed as he hung his head.

"Oh… I'm so sorry."

"Ah, _don't _be. There's nothing you could've done," Jack said shaking his head. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality… That's another way of saying that as long as there are those left behind who _remember _us, we'll never really be gone. So even if our scripture is turned to dust and cast to the winds, as long as we hold our gods, and our _loved _ones, in our hearts, they'll never really disappear."

"And the women whose souls… _made up _the Crimson Orb… They're in your heart as well?" Yang asked, her face flittering through different emotional states as she tried to grasp the metaphysical realms Jack was speaking of.

"In the same way that you, your sister, Blake, and Weiss are in my heart. Yes," Jack said with a nod. "Trust me when I say that getting into my good graces isn't exactly easy, but blood or not, the people I love and care for are part of my precious family. The love that my mother held for me… It didn't disappear the day she was murdered. Instead it was reborn into _new _love, even if that love took a while to find again," he said with a soft smile on his face.

" . . . Thank you, Jack. For helping me understand," Yang said with a soft smile. True, the world became more complicated once he had come into her life, but what Jack had experienced, and strived to share, were things she wouldn't trade for anything.

"No problem," Jack returned. The familiar hum of airship engines meeting their ears, they looked up to see the familiar turtle-finned airship slowly docking at Beacon, the boarding ramps coming down, passengers disembarking. "Well, this was fun. We should do it again sometime."

"Yeah. I'd like that," Yang said with a smile as she wheeled him over towards Ruby, her red hood unmistakable amidst the colorful throng of people surrounding her.

"HEY GUYYYYYYS!" Ruby cheered as she ran towards them. "You'll never believe what Team _Ray _did today!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Jack's sleep-talking should've given you some clue as to another of Jack's extended family. I've kept the hints somewhat subtle, but still feasible to put the lines together regarding his family tree. Mostly on his mother's side, as I haven't talked very much about his father's side.**

**On note of the "Byul Chun Dragon Art" and the "Six Point Spiraling Art", both are martial arts forms in a not-so-mainstream manga by the name of **Märchen: The Embodiment of Tales**. The passages in the book Yang found are from chapters 68 and 77. The reason for the crossover with **Märchen: The Embodiment of Tales**, is partly due to how thematically-altered stories like "Beauty and the Beast", "Snow White", "Jack and the Beanstalk", and others are used in this story, similar to how characters in RWBY are derived from old stories. Ergo, a crossover between this and RWBY isn't that too far off, because both center around the re-telling of fairy tales.**

**Beacon has a MASSIVE library, yet no-one in canon expanded their repertoires with all that knowledge at their fingertips. What a waste.**

**Anyway, it's the start of a new year, belated as it is, so I hope you take the time to enjoy this, and all I hope to publish within the coming year.**

**P.S.  
This holiday I started playing Overwatch, so if any of you out there have a PS4, want to play, or chat, with me, just look up the name **NewMystery356** on PS4 or BattleNet and you'll probably find me. My current "Defenders" are Mei and Torbjorn, my "Tanks" are D_Va and Reinhardt, and my "Support" are Mercy, Symmetra, and Zenyatta. At the bare-minimum, on "Assault" I can play Soldier 76, but he's your baseline Call of Duty-type character in-game.  
**


	34. World of Remnant: Combat Androids

Hello there… I'm Arthur Asimov. Student at Signal Academy over in Patch.

Now, this is gonna sound kinda weird, but some guy on my computer monitor claiming to be from "Dimension Six and Five Thirds" asked me to narrate this… What was it again?

**World of Remnant: Combat Androids.**

Right. That. Why am I doing this again?

**Because you're probably the smartest guy in your world's Story at present bar a few that have yet to be introduced, and you seemed like the most-appropriate sort to narrate this. I was going to add a "Voiced by:" tag at the top of this so the readers knew whose voice to imagine narrating, but I haven't settled on your VA yet.**

Not gonna pretend I even _know _what that means. _Or why I'm dignifying this with a response._

**Penny was going to be my **_**second **_**choice for narrator, but that seemed a little **_**too **_**ironic. Plus it might prove a little **_**depressing **_**for the poor robot girl to talk about puppets and the like in this context before Ruby can give her the "just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts doesn't make you any less real than me" speech.**

And… if you really _are _from some higher dimension, isn't it sort of a _bad _thing to talk to people about the future? Or is that only a Time Duke thing from that Dr. Whom show?

**To be honest with you, I'm gonna erase your memories of this meeting once we're done here, so anything you do or don't figure out during our interaction won't matter. As far as you'll know, you spaced out while working on that thing Ruby's going to ask of you.**

Thing? What thing?

**Ah, but that would be telling. Plus, even if I told you, you wouldn't remember _anyway_.  
**

. . . Since I'm not going to be getting out of this one, I guess I'll just talk to my so-called _audience_.

**Good to know. Knock 'em dead, slugger.**

Right… Ahem… Combat Androids… Where do I begin? It's kinda hard to say where the modern-day _idea _for Combat Androids began, and the era of their past-equivalents ended. Still a bit of a gray-area for historians.

Back in what's collectively known as the "Age of Magic" before the "Age of _Science_" took off after the Great War, there were things like Automata, Golem, and Living Armor running around. Back then, just like the name implied, everyone used "magic" alongside Dust to get things done. Nowadays, scientists try to quantify the goings-on of the Age of Magic as "Advanced Dust Manipulation" or "Applied Variable Semblance Plasmology", but me? I have an open-enough mind to _believe _that there are things which can't be explained with traditional reasoning, which could only _be _"Magic", in the same way that any sufficiently-advanced technology is indistinguishable _from _magic.

Basically, at advanced-enough levels, science and magic might as well be indistinguishable from one another.

Anyway… Automata, Golem, and Living Armor all had something in common even though they were made of different stuff and by different means. They were non-living, but nonetheless sapient to-a-degree, autonomous beings capable of carrying out orders on their own without someone _directly _manipulating them like a literal puppet on strings.

After the Kingdoms of Hyrule, Caldia, Ostia, and Liones destroyed themselves or fell through a combination of hubris, plague, war, forbidden magic, or _whatever _caused the Age of Magic to collapse upon itself, _mechanical _methods began to dominate how things were done as the _knowledge _of magic was steadily lost to the ages. Clocks took the place of sundials, steam-powered carts took the place of horse-drawn carriages…

In time, the advent of clockwork dolls as _novelties _began to give way to more… _progressive _thinkers, who thought of the more _confrontational _applications of humanoid beings who couldn't be killed by an errant blade to the jugular or a flintlock shot to the heart. At first it was clockwork torsos equipped with crossbows standing vigil in front of vaults and private collections while keyed to pressure pads, sending would-be trespassers away with poison-tipped bolts to center mass. Eventually they were placed on rails to move about in set patterns, then treads, until eventually, they were given actual hips and legs gifting them a greater degree of freedom than ever before.

After the Great War, scientific advancements that had been forcibly suppressed by backwards-thinking nobles terrified of change took off like the first Dust-powered rockets. The weaving of things other than Dust into armor and weapons began to spread, and vacuum tubes were just the beginning of modern-day computers. Once they ceased taking over entire building wings and could be crammed into human-sized spaces, _that _is when the advent of modern-day Combat Androids took place.

Of course, now that we've got that wordy _history lesson _out of the way, we can get to the stuff about _actual _Combat Androids and step away from the giant windup toys of the days of old.

As my so-called audience is probably well-versed, Atlas is the youngest, but also the most technologically advanced of the modern-day Kingdoms. While Vale's initial expansion past its prime real estate, Mountain Glenn, was a massive flop, Atlas' first major expansion was marginally more successful, despite the ups and downs that came with it.

It was called the Giga City Initiative, a massive fabricated city that was to be home for only the most cutting-edge technologies, manufacturing techniques, scientists, and artisans from across the world. Situated atop a massive plateau overlooking the coastline, while the weather held back the Creatures of Grimm, countless automated and _remote _construction companies were able to band together and create a massive climate-controlled city the likes of which the world had never seen. In fact, Hyperion's gamble to put everything it had on their contribution to the project paid off in a _huge _way, as not only did they achieve and _surpass _all construction deadlines, but left all other companies in the dust proving the capability of their proprietary Loader Bots.

However, while the city was prosperous once construction had been completed, it was also meant to be kept a secret. The hidden truth was that the whole thing was a big science and sociology experiment meant to determine whether an entire city could _sustain _itself on next-generation technology, without getting swept up into the decadence of it and having their moral structure fall into complete decay; like the early inhabitants of Vacuo.

For the first decade or so the arrangement worked swimmingly. Between the surrounding terrain and the city's automated defenses, the Grimm were largely kept at bay. Within the city bounds, various small robotics firms putting out new models of domestic robots every year enabled the populace to live in blissful ignorance of the danger just outside their walls.

None were more popular than Light Labs, founded and staffed by a Doctor Thomas Light. Both he and Doctor Albert W. Wily were robotics scientists back in Atlas' capital, having gotten their first big grant to make their own company after creating the Sniper Joe, the great-grandfather of the AK-130, for the Atlesian Ministry of Defense. Somewhere along the line, Dr. Wily became second-fiddle to Dr. Light, their one-sided rivalry roiling and simmering for years until things finally came to a head with the advent of the first Robot Masters, a feat which pushed Dr. Light's fame even further while Dr. Wily fell further into obscurity.

Now, the reason that Robot Masters were such a big deal, was due to the saturation of robotic labor in the workplace. Due to the rapidly-implemented applications of then-modern robotics, work that was originally too dangerous or too laborious for Humans was slowly being relegated to machines. However, because AI was still limited at the time, these machines were vulnerable to software failures that required frequent course-correction, creating no real shortage of robotics technicians on-site. What the Robot Masters changed about _this _however, was that the RMs would essentially be able to oversee and course-correct the software of countless lesser-robots with greater speed and efficiency than any Human ever could.

Doctor Light had meant for the advent of the Robot Masters to change the relations between man and machine forever. And it did. The paradigm between man and machine _definitely _changed forever. Unfortunately, it happened to be in the worst way possible.

After "mind-jacking" the first batch of Robot Masters, Doctor Wily sent them off on a near-homicidal rampage throughout Giga City and its surrounding territories, as a way of espousing his superior intellect over his now-former colleague. In light of this, Doctor Light's "son", a young next-generation Android by the name of Rock, volunteered to be "weaponized" into "the super fighting robot", Mega Man, also known as the "Blue Bomber". After fighting his way through who were contextually his brothers, Dr. Wily was apprehended, and his rampage brought to an end.

Surprisingly enough, no-one actually _died _during Dr. Wily's first plot, so instead of the death penalty like most "villains" would've received, he was imprisoned instead. A while later he escaped imprisonment, tried to take over Atlas (and the world) again, created a line of Robot Masters of his own, and was foiled a second time… Then a third… Then a forth… Then…

Okay, let's just say that things went back and forth a whole freakin' lot with a _bunch _of Robot Masters being made, blown up, and rebuilt, until things were finally concluded after the dispersal and subsequent resolution of a cyber-weapon known as the Roboenza Virus, a _somehow _airborne digital pathogen that caused robots to go on a crazed anti-Human bender.

Finally, after nearly ten years, the war of ideals between Dr. Light and Dr. Wily over what direction the future of robotics should take, came to an end. While the collateral damage of their numerous confrontations had been limited to Giga City, the people's faith in autonomous robots had wavered tremendously. As such, the Robot Masters were decommissioned and put on ice, while the creators of these lines themselves were forced into early retirement as newer, _safer _robots were created by a generation more than willing to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors.

Now, all of this was originally meant to be kept _secret_, the existence of Giga City concealed from the world at large to prevent an influx of refugees seeking a safe haven to call their own in a world dominated by Grimm; something which would irreparably contaminate the results of Atlas' experiment. However, because Dr. Wily's plots only continued to escalate in grandeur and design, each one coming closer and closer to putting Giga City and Atlas as a whole to its knees, eventually the existence of the Giga City Initiative and the Robot Masters became too big to cover up, and once a single whistle-blower slipped the net, the story exploded like wildfire.

Basically, Dr. Wily kicked up too much dust to be swept under the rug.

Mind you, Giga City still exists today, albeit is very selective of who is let in, but once the _Initiative _had come to an end, the inhabitants of Giga City, no longer bound by contract to stay for the long-haul, which was essentially the duration of their natural lives or until the experiment was _officially _marked as concluded, became free to leave as they wished. This in turn allowed countless technological marvels to spread across the world like pollen, taking root and blooming into various new-age corporations like Asgard Industries, Helix Securities, Maliwan, and others.

Since then, Combat Androids only continued to become more mainstream in both military and private sectors, but the propensity of creating Robot _Masters _to control and dictate the actions of _other _robots ground to a screeching halt. As a result, the level of autonomy built into these technological marvels was drawn back tremendously, so as to avoid any full-on revolts like which occurred after Doctor Wily's one-sided war against his better-received colleague in the field of robotics.

Now, most people might be willing to content themselves to the belief that that was the end of it, and that we'll never have to worry about any robot rebellions ever again.

Me on the other hand? I'm smart enough to realize that things haven't ended so cut-and-dry.

I've watched enough movies and read enough books to know that someone, _somewhere_, is subverting science to their whims and pushing the bounds of robotics and AI even further than what Doctors Light and Wily initially thought possible within their lifetimes. Maybe some guy with a crazed look in his eye is cooking one up right now, or there are even super-life-like androids and gynoids walking among us even as I speak, but… Shit, where was I going with this?

**You were regaling the audience about how even though the dance has changed, the song was still the same?**

Yeah, that. So I say to you… _audience_…

I'm not saying you should stockpile weapons in your basement for techno-geddon, nor am I saying you should have your arms wide-open like some kinda hippie who thinks _Grimm _can live with Humans and Faunus in peaceful co-existence, _the poor dumb bastards_, _may they rest in peace_.

What I _am_ saying is… Look at technology with the necessary amount of skepticism, and for Lindzei's sake, use a lick of common sense. Technology can be used for both good and bad, embraced, or pushed away. But no matter what you do in this lifetime, no matter how much you might _fear _progress, science will _always _be applied to make our lives easier, so all we really _can _do, is be patient, and try to be ready for what's to come over the horizon. And not be a bunch of backwards-thinking _yahoos _like those in-breeding tyrants from before the Age of Color.

How was that?

**Sounds great. Really got the point across with the ancient history, and the **_**modern **_**history. A little wordier than the **_**canon **_**World of Remnant episodes from Rooster Teeth might've been, but, this is a complicated subject, so I won't deduct points or anything like that.**

Once again, not even going to pretend to know what you're talking about. And seriously, what kind of name is _Rooster _Teeth? Anyway, are we done here?

**Yep. Now I'm just gonna erase your memories so you don't know about Penny until Ruby does. Anything you want me to show you before that happens? You know, 'cause you won't remember me showing it to you.**

Anything like _what_?

**Hmmm… Pictures of Ruby in the shower? What she'll look like as an older, more **_**mature **_**woman with more **_**pronounced **_**womanly features? Or maybe where her erogenous zones are so you can drive her up the wall when you get under the sheets with her?  
**

Uhhh… Hmmm… Ah… No. No, I don't want you to show me any of that. If I'm going to see Ruby naked, or what she'll look like in the future, or that _last _thing…

**Damn, you are blushing really, _really _red right now.**

One, shut up. Two, I'll see those things when the time comes when… _if_, the two of us have that kind of relationship between us.

**Hmmm… A very **_**you **_**answer. Just as I have written it.**

Once again, not even going to pretend to understand what that means.

**This World of Remnant special has been brought to you by Eon Ozan of Dimension Six and Five Thirds. Thaaaat's right; I'M BACK BITCHES!**

**And now for a Men in Black-style memory wiping.**

_*FLASH*_

Agh! My eyes!

**Now, to get the fuck out of here before there's a repeat of the _Amnesia Dust _incident. And it's not _nearly _as fun as it sounds.  
**

**Ah, but before I forget, as some of you may or may not have noticed, there's been a recent change to the Cover Art for this story. Credit where credit's due goes to KegiSpringfield on DeviantArt, who has done Cover Art for many _other _RWBY stories you may've stumbled upon. I like his style, which has pointed me towards other great stories, so after shelling out $10 USD for a two-character work, he agreed to do this GREAT Cover Art for my story, showcasing one of the most-important moments of the narrative; where Ruby extended a helping hand to Jack when he was at one of his lowest points. Not THE lowest point, but it still makes for a cute moment between the two of them.  
**

**Going wages are $5 USD per-character, plus an additional $5 USD for each additional character in the same work, non-negotiable. Just send a Note with the details for the request and make your payment over Pay-Pal, and in a few days (time pending) you can have a great work for your story, someone else's, or just a funny image you'd like in that style. So yeah, credit where credit's due. If you're looking for cool RWBY Cover Art, it might be worth the money. Definitely was in MY opinion.  
**

**Oh, and if you could drop my DA name (NewMystery356) when you make the Commission, that'd also be great. I told him I'd give him some exposure to help drum up business (same as how Giant-Slayer got exposure on DA), so at the least I'm hoping for some proof I kept good on that promise and wasn't just blowing hot air.**

Ugh… What happened?

**Amnesia Dust.**

_*Poof*_

**And that's how it works.  
**

How what works?

**Amnesia Dust.  
**

_*Poof*_

**And that's how it works.  
**

_*Poof*_

How what works?

**I was wrong. This _is _more fun than it sounds.**

What's more fun? And who the heck are you? And how'd you get onto my monitor?

**Well, I think I've outlived my welcome.**

_*FLASH*_

Agh! My eyes!

**Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all folks!**


	35. Ruby's Day Out

**DISCLAIMER:**

**I do not own RWBY, Halo, Attack on Titan, Durarara!, Destiny, Mass Effect, Dragonball Z, Metal Gear, Mahou Sensei Negima!, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, Terminator, One Piece, Hajime no Ippo, UQ Holder!, Final Fantasy VII, Agent 007, Cyborg 009-1, Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist, Fifty Shades of Gray, Tales of (Franchise), Inuyasha, Katanagatari, Killing Bites, Triage X, DEATH BATTLE!, Gate – Thus the JSDF Fought There!, The Boondocks, Toriko, Boku no Hero Academia, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Deadman Wonderland, ****My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, One Punch Man, Kingdom Hearts, Deadpool, Digimon, Final Fantasy XIII, Bleach, Yuyu Hakusho, ****and/or any other Intellectual Properties used and/or references used in this story.**

**All Intellectual Properties are the property of their respective IP-Holders. All musical cues and scores are owned by their respective owners and/or creators. All Original Characters are property of either myself or the conceiving parties.**

**Please support the official release.**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So Rubes, now that the gang's splitting up for the day, what're you going to do?" Yang asked, hands interlaced behind her head as she followed off after her sister.

"I'm thinking of calling the old gang back together to hang out," Ruby said opening up her Scroll. "It's been a while since we all hung out. Haven't seen most of them since coming to Beacon."

"I still think that Andy guy's a bad influence," Yang said with crossed arms.

"Oh, like you're any better," Ruby said rolling her eyes.

"Gasp! How you _wound _me!" Yang audibly gasped.

"You'll get over it," Ruby sighed as she typed in her password.

**[Red_Rose has signed in]**

**Red_Rose: Hello? Is anyone there?**

After waiting a few seconds, her Scroll pinged.

**[White_King has signed in]**

**White_King: Red, are you okay? Are you hurt? **

**Red_Rose: Yeah, King, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?**

**White_King: I heard that your Team came to town yesterday and got too close to that crimson orb in the town square. I was so worried about you.**

**[Kaboom! has signed in]**

**Kaboom!: Yeah, Red. If you were going to blow shit up, why didn't you invite me?**

**Red_Rose: I didn't PLAN on blowing stuff up, Andy.**

**Kaboom!: Dude, not cool! Using our IRL names is bad netiquite.**

**[Guardian has signed in]**

**Guardian: As though thou knows anything about etiquette.**

**Red_Rose: Hey G. How's it hangin?**

**Guardian: Things are "hanging" quite well since you have left Signal.**

**Guardian: How have you been doing?**

**Red_Rose: I've been doing well. Anyway, King, why were you worried about me?**

**White_King: After what happened in town yesterday, classes at Signal were canceled until the dust settled.**

**Red_Rose: Yikes. Didn't think we made that much of a splash.**

**White_King: Yes, well, with stories of some kind of murderous **_**animal **_**on the rampage capable of going toe-to-toe with trained Huntsmen, no-one wanted to risk it coming to Patch and tearing the school a new one.**

**Red_Rose: Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about that.**

**Red_Rose: Anyway, the reason I'm calling is to get everyone together.**

**Red_Rose: It's been way too long since we hung out, and I'd like to get the gang back together for an outing in town before school starts back up and I lose the chance.**

**White_King: I'm working in the bakery right now, but I'm sure if I explain to my auntie what's happening, she'll let me off a little early.**

**Red_Rose: Great!**

**Red_Rose: What about you two?**

**Kaboom!: Hmmm… I dunno. I **_**am **_**kinda busy at the moment.**

**White_King: BULLSHIT!**

**White_King: You just got through telling me you were sitting on your ass with nothing to do.**

**Guardian: Whether or not Andy comes does not matter. I will make every endeavor to meet up with you.**

"Tree."

**Red_Rose: What was this about a tree?**

**White_King: Tree?**

**White_King: What're you talking about?**

"Tree!"

_***Bonk***_

"OW!" Ruby cursed as she bumped face-first into a tree, her Scroll clattering to the ground.

"I tried to warn ya," Yang shrugged.

"Thanks for nothing, sis," Ruby grumbled as she picked up her Scroll and got back on FacePages.

**Red_Rose: Sorry about that.**

**Red_Rose: Something happened IRL.**

**Red_Rose: Anyway, I'm almost to the airship, so here's where we'll meet up.**

"Your ship's setting sail."

"What?" Ruby asked, her sister pointing to the first airship heading off to Vale, the gangplank slowly retracting and the doors closing. "OH CRAP!"

The girl quickly putting away her Scroll, Yang was left gagging on rose petals as the hooded girl was off like a shot. Her hood thrown from her head and her cape whipping behind her, the wind whistled in Ruby's ears as she moved faster, and faster, and _faster_, until the edges of her vision began to blacken and tunnel.

The entrance to her quarry retracting before ultimately closing, the large turtle-like airship began to lift off, carried away from Beacon's front gate by a westward gust of wind.

Now, most who missed their flight would've given up then and there, skidding to a halt before dejectedly plopping themselves down on a nearby bench to wait for the next ship on the schedule.

Ruby Rose, was not most people.

Her body alight with a ruby red glow as the edges of her silver eyes glowed crimson, the girl's feet left the ground and her hooded cloak enveloped her form as she bodily corkscrewed through the air. A stream of rose petals trailing behind her, in a feat that defied all logic, Ruby's spinning form began to generate self-sustaining lift, her upward trajectory carrying her higher and higher until she rose high above the deck of the departing airship. Her cloak unfurling around her as she reached the zenith of her flight, the girl then kicked off the air itself, a ring of rose petals left in the wake of her footfalls as she zig-zagged through the air, controlling her descent until she rolled to a stop on the deck of the airship moments before the other passengers left the door and began spilling out.

As the airship left Beacon airspace, Yang Xiao Long, the only witness to the awe-inspiring feats her sister had just performed, realized something very important.

"I have _got _to get Jack to teach me how to _do _that!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Cue RWBY "The Shining Beacon Part 1" Score (1:26 – 3:31)**

"Hmmmmmmm…" a familiar Rabbit-breed Faunus hummed to himself, arms crossed behind his back. He was clad in his signature labcoat and hoodie, a schoolbag slung across his body and tucked under his left arm. What was different however was that he had a white, blue-accented scarf wrapped around his head keeping his bangs out of his face, brushing his ears down his back.

"Sir Asimov, please cease your pacing," a blond-haired woman standing off to the side chided, speaking in a very formal manner.

"Yeah man, you're wearing a hole in the ground," a lazy-sounding teen aid waving his hand, purely casual and languidly leaning his weight on one leg as though he couldn't be troubled to use both.

"Alana, I'm really nervous, so cut me some slack," the Rabbit Faunus said as he wrung his hands nervously. "Andy. Shut up," he said flatly at the other teen.

"Sir Asimov, I understand that it has been some time since you last saw Lady Rose, but rest assured, she will be _very _happy to see you again, that much I can assure you."

The woman known as Alana was a statuesque woman, sixteen years of age bordering seventeen, towering over the other two boys at a height of six feet. She had the appearance of a cool beauty, her light blue eyes and long blonde hair kept in a ponytail tied with a braid giving off a regal air about her, while the tan to her skin showed she wasn't just a delicate flower. She carried herself like a knight, and it reflected strongly in her attire which consisted of an old-styled yellow and white-accented dress that fell down to her knees, over which she wore silver knight-like armor. Said armor consisted of armored boots going up to her knee, greaves made of segmented plates with armored gloves, a breastplate consisting of diamond-shaped plates, matching pauldrons, and beveled plates hanging from a thick leather belt and worn over her dress. Planted in the ground in front of her was a sheathed claymore with a silver scabbard, an ordinary black cross-guard, her hands resting atop he pommel.

"Yeah. It ain't like there are any creepers at Beacon looking to get into the panties of an under-aged schoolgirl or nothin'."

The one known as Andy was a lanky like-skinned male teen barely sixteen years of age, sleepy gunmetal-colored eyes resting below a messy mop of blond hair that turned dark-green towards the end of his long ponytail, a scraggly mess of hairs growing from his chin, giving him an elf-like, albeit _rough, _appearance. His attire was nothing spectacular like Alana's, consisting of, from the bottom up, brown leather boots, white sweat pants, and a green tunic with the sleeves rolled up and a white shirt underneath. What prominently stood out about him was the aluminum-colored mechanical left arm that extended up into his rolled sleeve and up to the shoulder. Nothing overly-fancy or anything, but it was clearly a combat-grade prosthetic meant to emulate the same articulate range of motion as a human arm and hand, the fingertips padded with a thin layer of black rubber, a black rabbit decal with a transparent **AA** on the side slapped across the back of his hand. Hanging from his back via a brown leather bandoleer running around his left shoulder to his right hip was a closed dark-green box-shaped quiver, and a black compound bow with a Collapsible Frame that reduced it to pocket-size.

"Andy, shut your mouth, or I'll rig your arm to give you an electric shock the next time you go to wipe your ass," Arthur scowled. Of course, with his rabbit-like features, it was more of a _pout _than anything. A really _cute _one at that.

"Man, you will _not _let me live it down that _you_ were the one to make me this arm, are ya?" he asked gesturing to the rabbit-shaped decal on the back of his hand.

"Only 'cause you blew the _last _one off messing with that damned _slingshot _of yours."

"Slingshots are faster than a bow and arrow."

"Only because you _suck _at it."

"You suck."

"_You _suck."

"No _you _suck."

"Both of you be quiet," Alana ordered as she slammed the end of her scabbard into the ground. "Andy, you 'suck'. Sir Asimov, _Andy_ 'sucks'. End of story."

"_Tch, always taking his side," _the scraggly teen huffed.

"What was that?" Alana asked with a cold look in her light-blue eyes as she slowly pulled her greatsword from its scabbard.

"_Nothiiiing!" _Andy said in a heightened tone, the lady knight letting the cross guard click against her sheath with a huff.

"Look, can we just stop fighting for… _five _more minutes? I can see Ruby's airship coming into port, and I don't want the first thing she sees after so long to be all of us bickering like a bunch of school children," Arthur stated.

"Remind me why I'm friends with you again?"

"Because I'm the only one who'd make you a mechanical prosthetic given your family's history as bomb-makers," the Rabbit Faunus said matter-of-factly. "Seriously, your family sells nothing _but _bombs, bomb-making, _and _bomb-handling accessories. It's a wonder they got their _store _insured since there's enough explosives stored in the back room to take out an entire city _block._"

"Yes... Right... Only _one _city block..."

"Now that the two of you have made up, get into position. Lady Rose's ship is beginning to descend," Alana ordered. Arthur moving to stand across from where the departees would disembark, Alana taking place on his right, Andy on his left, the three friends watched and waited as the docking clamps magnetically locked the ship into place a few minutes later. The gangplank extending until it bridged the gap of the deep rectangular pit the airship had used to dock in, dozens of people with varying attire began to pour out of the airship, a splash of bright red and billowing cloth finally coming into view.

"HEY GUYYYYYYYS!" Ruby cried out, waving her arms above her head as soon as she saw them.

"RUBY! I MISSED YOU!" Arthur shouted in return, only to clamp his hands over his mouth in embarrassment.

"I missed you too!" Ruby shouted as she ran out of the parting crowd towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck and getting twirled around. "You_ guys_! I missed you _guys_ too," she corrected.

"It is good to see you too, Lady Rose," Alana said with a slight bow of her head.

"Sup?" Andy asked casually.

"Yeah, the gang's back together again," Arthur said with a smile. Ruby Rose, Arthur Asimov, Alana Lee Miller, and Andrew D. Argent aka "Andy" formed their own little clique back at Signal, comprised of those that stood out or simply didn't fit in with their peers.

Ruby Rose, the youngest in the group of four, was a "weapon nut" who would ogle weapons instead of the hot guys carrying them (as applicable). This on top of the enormous scythe she wielded, as well as both her father and uncle being instructors at Signal, made her largely unapproachable due to her "eccentricities"; that and her murder-happy tendencies such as "Let's kill it."

Arthur Asimov, the second-youngest of their group and a few months older than Ruby, was one of the few Faunus in the Huntsmen program at Signal. This on top of the intellect he possessed which eclipsed that of nearly everyone else in his and the years above him in all fields, isolated him from almost everyone. Arthur would've _remained _isolated, had Ruby not offered her hand in friendship one day when he'd been getting his ears pulled and called a freak by the school bullies.

Andrew D. Argent, also known simply as Andy, was considered one of the most-handsome guys at Signal due to his elf-like appearance, which was only further accentuated by his choice in weapon, the bow and arrow. While normally a guy like him would've been among the more-popular of cliques, the fact that he was rude, foul-mouthed, and short-tempered pushed most people away. And if _those _qualities didn't push people away, he also had a propensity for making things that exploded, or simply making _things _explode with his Semblance.

The oldest of the group of four was Alana Lee Miller, the only daughter of a prominent Huntsman family descended from knights dating as far back as the advent of the Great War, and the last of her line after the failed expansion of Mount Glenn. She and her mother had barely escaped Mount Glenn years ago, ushered off into a train filled with other women and children before the tunnels were collapsed entirely, her mother dying of a terminal disease just before Alana had entered Signal. Her incredibly stoic nature and strict adherence to the lifestyle of a knight was considered old-fashioned by most of her peers, her focuses largely geared towards fighting as opposed to talking about stuff like nails, clothes, and/or cute boys.

Had Ruby not gotten admitted to Beacon two years early and the quartet turned into a trio, everyone at Signal had been sure that the four eccentrics would've become Team RAAA or "Ray"; one way or another.

"I'm glad all of us could get together like this," Ruby said with a smile as the four of them began to leave the skyport. "It's really been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Yes, far too long," Alana said with a smile on her face.

"So, we getting this party on the road or not?" Andy wondered, only for Arthur to jab him in the ribs with his elbow.

"Ruby, what's on the day's itinerary?" the Faunus asked.

"Well, I was thinking to start, maybe the four of us could get an early lunch-"

"Or _brunch,_" Andy interjected.

"That too," Ruby ceded. "After that maybe we could go for a walk in the park, it really _is _a nice day after all," she said looking up at the sky. "Once we're done, I'm thinking we could drop by Marcus Munitions, see if any of the new mods from Weapons Magazine Issue 228 are available for purchase outside of mail-order."

"Ah… yes… Marcus Munitions…" Alana said lowly. "When you think MURDER, think Marcus Munitions," she said reciting the store's rather _questionable _slogan. It didn't have anything to do with being a knight, and as such, not having any use for guns, mods, or ammo. She just didn't feel _comfortable _with any form of commerce that basically _espoused _murder as the source of its bottom-line.

Come to think of it, maybe that's where some of Ruby's more murder-_centric _tendencies came from in the _first _place.

At the very least, the man had the decency to sell Body Armor among his wares… Even if said Body Armor was located next to the very same reason you might _need _it. I.e. _guns _for those who couldn't follow.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask. What's with the bandana?" Andy asked pointing at the Faunus' head

"It's a scarf, and I use it to keep my hair out of my face while I'm baking," Arthur answered as he removed said "bandana" and stuffed it into his shoulder bag.

"You know, I feel like we've never _been _to your uncle's bakery," Ruby hummed aloud.

"Well, that's usually because it's pretty out of the way for most of us, and whenever we _do _plan to go, we usually get sidetracked by something else and we lose our chance," he answered.

"Really? I never noticed."

"It's fine, I'm sure we'll get around to it eventually," Arthur shrugged.

"Well… Why not _today_?" Ruby suggested. "After we're done goofing off, we can go to your uncle's bakery, stock up on baked goods, and finally meet some of the family you're always talking about."

"I… would like that very much," the Faunus said with a soft smile. "Let me warn you right now, my cousins can be a bit of a handful. Always full of energy like they're on a sugar-high," he chuckled, thinking of the very same girl in front of him. "Though come to think of it, that might explain where the surplus confectionaries at the end of the day always winds up. How those two never get any cavities is beyond me…"

"Oh god, I would _love _to live in a bakery. Waking up and going to sleep next to cookies and cake…" Ruby said as she wiped a bit of saliva from the corner of her mouth. "It sounds like _heaven_."

"The novelty wears off after a while," Arthur shrugged. "But hey, since I work there, I'll see about getting you in on the friends and family discount."

"You _mean _it?" Ruby asked with stars in her eyes.

"Of course. You're my best friend in the whole world, Ruby."

"Oh, stop, you don't really mean that," she said bashfully as she swatted his arm.

"No, I really _do _mean it," Arthur retorted. "If it weren't for you, I might've dropped out of Signal and spent the rest of my days as a baker, instead of training to become a Hunter, like you."

"Well _I _think killing Grimm and baking cookies is really, _really _cool," Ruby said with a beaming smile that caused the Faunus to blush bright red at the praise. "You know, I just _noticed _something."

"What is it, Ruby?"

"Have you been working out?" the girl asked with a tilt of her head. "You seem a bit beefier than the last time I saw you," the girl said as she got deeply into his personal space, running her hands along his chest and feeling the muscle underneath his clothes, a completely innocent look on her face. Her own budding frame brushing up against his, a lobster-red blush formed on the Faunus' face while Ruby was blissfully unaware of what she was doing to him.

'_She smells like strawberries and chocolate chip cookies,' _Arthur realized as he caught a whiff of the girl's hair. True, even at a distance, Ruby _always _smelled like sweets to the Faunus' senses, but up-close it was especially prominent.

'_Huh… Arthur smells a little like pound cake and… What is that, sherbet?' _Ruby thought to herself as she more-obviously sniffed him, only able to take in the Faunus' odor due to their proximity.

"Lady Rose, perhaps you should give Sir Asimov his personal space," Alana suggested. "People are beginning to stare."

Ruby's eyes looking around to see passerby looking right at her, some with mirth in their expressions, others with blatant disgust, Ruby looked up to realize just how close she was to Arthur, their noses practically touching with her hands resting on his chest. The blush forming on her face quickly matching that of the Faunus' own, the girl leapt back with an _"Eeeep!"_, the Rabbit Faunus twiddling his thumbs nervously.

"We should probably get going," Andy suggested. "This could only get worse if the two of you were an interracial gay married couple burning the Valian flag above an abortion clinic."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"_So… Are we just going to ignore that the two of them were sniffing each other like a couple horny rabbits?" _Andy asked the blond walking beside him, the four of them having left the station only minutes ago.

"_Shush," _the woman ordered, the two of them walking a few paces behind Ruby and Arthur. The two of them were practically shoulder to shoulder, but never met one anothers gaze for more than a second or two at a time.

"Um… Ruby?"

"Y-Yes, Arthur?"

"You… uh… You _smell _nice," he eventually said. _'You _smell _nice? What the _fuck _man!' _he berated himself. _'Was that the best you could come up with?'_

"W-Why thank you. I… always try to smell nice," she said with a nervous smile. "You-you smell nice _too_."

"Y-You're welcome…"

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"So uh…" Ruby said nervously as she and Arthur continued to skirt around their budding influx of teen hormones. "Small talk?"

"Y-Yes, small talk would be nice," Arthur replied.

"Um… Will you be coming to Beacon for Visitor's Day this Saturday?" she asked.

"I will, actually," Arthur replied. "Oh, but… I'll be spending most of the day with my cousin and her team," he said sadly. "Ah, but don't worry! I'll be sure to set some time aside to hang out with you, just the two of us. Maybe you could give me a tour of your new stomping grounds before the last airships head back for Vale?"

"I'd like that," Ruby said with a smile.

"Hey uh, not that this ain't entertainin' and all, but when're we gonna _eat_?" Andy interjected as he rubbed his stomach.

"Hush. Can't you see they're in the middle of having a moment?" Alana chided.

"Well, actually, breakfast _does _sound pretty good about now," Ruby realized. "How does Sherry's sound?"

"I'm game for the buffet," Andy shrugged.

"I'm fine anywhere," Alana replied.

"I…" Arthur said nervously. "Maybe you three should go ahead without me. I had breakfast back at home, so I can wait outside," he said wringing his hands. The growling of his stomach seconds later caused Ruby to give him a concerned look.

"Arthur… Is this one of those _race_ things?" Ruby asked sadly.

"No…" he replied. " . . . Yes," he admitted a few seconds later, realizing he could never lie straight to her face like that. "Look, I just don't want to be a bother."

"Arthur, you could _never _be a bother!" Ruby objected.

"Yeah but… after what happened at the Sunset Terrace… I just didn't want to be the cause of another scene."

"The Sunset Terrace…? How do _you _know about that?" Ruby gawped.

"Don't you know? It's all over the _web_," Andy said pulling out his Pocket Scroll. "Just look at the video someone took the day your sis ripped that racist waitress a new one."

"Hey wait, my friend hasn't ordered yet."

"Yeah… No. We don't _serve _his kind here. If you want to stay, that's fine, but your… _friend _will have to leave."

"What?!"

"The Sunset Terrace reserves the right to deny service at our own discretion. There's no law against that."

"Bullshit! You're being racist and you _know _it!"

"After that, the Sunset Terrace started getting fewer and fewer customers when people realized just how racist the staff _really_ were. Just because people don't _talk _about racism and how from a moral standpoint its _wrong_, doesn't mean they don't care. Most of them just can't be troubled to get off the fence, or they don't want to be the nail that gets hammered down by "_the man"_," Andy summarized making air-quotes. The video wasn't much more than a couple minutes long, but the _message _it sent was real. That and the fact that a busty blonde bombshell actually _cared _about that sort of thing instead of only focusing on herself, was especially telling of the severity of the issue.

"As long as racism against Faunuskind exists within the highest echelons of our government, any progression towards a peaceful co-existence will be slow-going," Alana said with crossed arms. "That's why it's up to us, the next generation, to take hold of the reins from them, even if it means usurping their metaphorical thrones from their personages."

"Huh… I never thought about it that way," Ruby hummed. "Anyway, all of that aside. Arthur," she said taking his hands. "I could _never _be ashamed of our friendship. So _let _the people watch. Or glare. Or whatever it is they want to do. None of them matter. _You're _what matters," she said squeezing his hands, eyes of silver gazing deeply into eyes of crimson. "I'll always have your back. So don't think I'll ever abandon you just because it's what _society _would want me to do."

"Th… Thank you, Ruby," Arthur sniffled.

"Now c'mon! Let's go get us some brunch and hang out like we did back at Signal!" Ruby said with a beaming smile as she pulled Arthur along, a matching smile on his face as he followed his own personal hero.

"Well ain't that a_dorable_," Andy cooed. _***Bif***_ "OW!" the archer yelped as Alana ribbed him with her elbow, following off after the other too, a grumbling Andy right behind her.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Sherry's was a down-to-Earth family restaurant with branches in the capital of each Kingdom, and every officially-recognized territory of said Kingdoms under infrastructural (i.e. walls) and militant protection (i.e. border patrol and automated defenses). It had both tables and booths, some goofy crane machines towards the front for the kids, a large buffet ring in the center serving a variety of foods, and even a little mascot in the form of a female bear wearing a blue shirt and hat with the word **Sherry** in white print. All in all the place just _screamed _"family restaurant".

"Glad to finally be here. I'm starving," Andy sighed.

"Hush, you. Your stomach hasn't even rumbled _once _since we met up," Alana huffed.

"Excuse me!" Ruby said as the four of them approached the counter, the young woman at the front momentarily talking to someone in the back kitchens before turning back to them.

"Yes, how can I help-uwah!" the girl at the counter squealed.

"Hm?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

"Would… Would you excuse me for a moment? I need to talk to my manager," the girl said hastily before running off to the back.

"Um…" Arthur hummed as he looked around. Most everyone in the restaurant looked up from their meals, their eyes invariably gravitating towards the tall white rabbit ears sitting atop his head, but almost immediately most of them went back to their meals when "Team Ray" made eye contact with them. Back in the kitchen, the woman from the front desk was talking animatedly with a rotund man with a moustache, discretely (or at least trying to) pointing at them and then to something on her Scroll. The man in turn exchanged some words with a nervous look on his face before ushering the woman out.

"P-Please, come right this way and I'll take your orders immediately," the woman said ushering them to a booth in the back that was right next to the buffet line, the air saturated with the smell of breakfast. "What would you like to drink this morning?"

"Milk," Ruby replied almost automatically.

"S-sweet tea," Arthur replied.

"Gimme a pepsi," Andy ordered.

"I will have water," Alana replied more-politely.

"A-Alright, I'll have your drinks back here in a minute," the woman said before walking off.

" . . . What was _that _all about?" Ruby asked as the woman rushed away to get their drinks as though her life, or at least her _job_, depended on it.

"They probably recognized you from the video your sister was in and didn't want to risk you making a spectacle of ripping one of their waitresses a new one if they pulled any _racist _crap," Andy shrugged.

"But I would _never _do something like that!" Ruby gasped.

"Yes, but _they _don't know that, and as long as that repute acts as a buffer against any acts of racism, I don't see the need to correct them," Alana stated as she and the others leaned their weapons against the nearby wall.

As Hunters-in-training, students at officially-recognized Combat Schools were legally allowed, and sometimes _obligated_, to carry their weapons on their personages in the event that something happened and there was no other authority to deal with anything requiring a more _violent _approach. As such, no-one seemed to bat an eye at the four muscular teens with a collapsed scythe, a pair of swords, a bow and quiver, and a greatsword between them.

"So… What do we order?" Arthur asked.

"I doubt the buffet line has _carrots _this early."

"Shut up, Andy."

"You can't go wrong with the buffet line," Ruby said with a shrug. "Oh, but before we eat, there's something I need to discuss with you," she said turning to Arthur.

"What is it?" the Faunus asked.

"Listen, I know this might be a little sudden, but there's something I'd like for you to make for me. If you have the time, I mean."

"What do you need?"

"Well… Um… How do I put this?" the girl fidgeted nervously. "I was wondering if you could make some kind of _reconnaissance _robot for me."

"Reconnaissance?"

"Yeah. A little robot that can go out ahead of my Team and look around a place so that we don't run headlong into any kind of ambush," Ruby replied. "I remembered how you whipped up that little roving coffee-bot for my dad's birthday last year, and just wondered if you could do something cool like that again."

"Well… I guess I _could _make something like that. Probably whip up an App to let you control it through your Scroll after scrounging up a bit of source code," Arthur hummed. "What kind of features did you want it to have?"

"Well, since we're going to take it out on missions, it has to be _super_-portable. We'd just wear ourselves out lugging something big and heavy around, and I need something a little more _practical _than some toy drone you can get at the store. I'm not gonna send it face-first into a _Beowolf _or anything, but it needs to handle _some _bumps and tumbles," Ruby answered. "So yeah, a video camera would be cool, and being able to control it with my Scroll would be just _perfect_. Maybe something that can fly for a birds-eye view if you can manage it."

"Hmmm… I suppose I can whip _something _together before the next time we meet up. It'll take a couple all-nighters, but this is important to you, so it's important to me too," Arthur replied as he took out a notepad and began scribbling ideas down.

"Thank you, Arthur. You're the best," Ruby said with a serene smile on her face. "You know, you've always been _wicked _smart. How'd you get so good with tech and robots?"

"Well, my auntie says I get it from my parents, but… I don't even remember them, so I don't know how much of that is true," the Faunus said sadly as his ears drooped.

"Ohmygosh, I'm so sorry. I totally forgot about that," Ruby apologized. Arthur always put up such a strong front all the time that you'd never even realize he'd been orphaned after what happened at Mount Glenn years ago. The boy was just a _baby_ when he'd been taken in by his aunt, and for whatever reason, neither of his birth parents were able to escape back to Vale on that last subway train before demo teams collapsed the tunnels behind it.

"No, no, it's alright. My parents are gone, and I've gotten over it. No need to keep apologizing like that," Arthur said waving his hands.

"Well, don't you worry about a thing. I'll definitely make it up to you. You do way too much for me _not _to get anything out of it," she said scratching her cheek. "If you hadn't been there to proofread my math, Crescie wouldn't be _nearly _as pretty as she is now," she said patting the side of her weapon.

"Hey now, don't sell yourself short. You would've gotten it right eventually, I just fast-tracked you to it is all," Arthur waved off.

"No I wouldn't… I'm stupid…" she groaned as she laid her head down on the table and cried anime waterfall tears, Alana patting her on the head.

"Well, you _did _flunk a lot of math tests, so no arguing there," Andy shrugged, only to get ribbed by Arthur a moment later.

"Ruby, you _aren't _stupid," Arthur asserted as he took the girl's hand. "You're an amazing fighter and a brilliant weapon designer. Not many people at Signal can be _both_. That's probably why Ozpin asked you to come to Beacon two years early."

" . . . Thanks, Arthur. I feel much better," she said curling her fingers around his hand.

"Should we leave you two alone?" Andy asked, Alana flicking him on the forehead with her armored glove a moment later. "YOW!"

"Oh, that reminds me."

"What the heck could my _pain _possibly remind you of?" Andy asked as Arthur fished through his shoulder bag.

"The other day I finally finished that _other _project you tasked me with. You know, the one you made _before _you went to Beacon early."

At this, Ruby gasped so loudly that if someone were standing right in front of her, she would've sucked the oxygen right out of their body. "You mean…?"

"Yep. As crazy as the idea sounded at the time, in practice it's actually pretty feasible," he said dramatically slamming a white-colored bullet magazine down on the table, the only symbol present being a black circle with a clockwise logarithmic spiral running around it. "_Drill _Rounds," he said waving a hand across the magazine for dramatic effect.

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" Ruby squealed as she scrambled to grab it. "These rounds will be the rounds to pierce the heavens!"

She had _really _weird dreams when she was hopped up on too many cookies right before bed. Instead of skipping about with a picnic basket in one hand and an over-sized scythe that decapitated all nearby Grimm in the other on her way to grandmother Tea's house, she had dreamed about drills. And giant robots. And giant robots that _used _drills. And also a bunch of metaphors about masculinity, but most of it was about drill-wielding robots.

There were also over-the-top speeches about _masculinity _doled out predominantly by a shirtless tattooed man with a sword and a cape, but that didn't really apply to her because she was a _girl _and masculinity was more Yang's thing.

There was also a fan-service-esque hotspring segment, but that kinda felt like filler.

"Yep. Pretty much," Arthur flinched as Ruby's squeal reverberated in his ears. Still, seeing the glowing smile on her face as she cradled the magazine of custom-tooled rounds to her face made the pain and sleepless nights all the more worth it. "They lose accuracy at long-range, and they don't work well at point-blank because the tips don't have enough time to spool-up to speed, so I'd recommend a nice mid-range with those. Also, make sure no-one you _care _for is in the firing lane, because in testing these punched through _several _trees before stopping, and I imagine Grimm are softer than that. These Drill Rounds are tipped with drill bits fueled by a pinch of Cyan Dust, so once they get spinning they'll be able to pierce through armor and light cover, though they'll lose power on any consecutive targets that are hit."

"Arthur, you're the _greatest_!" Ruby cried as she threw herself across the table and wrapped her arms around his neck, peppering his face with kisses. After about a dozen of them, the Faunus' face was completely red. After a few _more _of said kisses, Ruby went back to her seat and cuddled with her new Drill Rounds, leaving Arthur to flush in embarrassment with his hands over his face. Of course, the raising of the corners of his lips showed he wasn't _opposed _to the girl's method of payment. Even if that wasn't her _intention _at the time.

"So… We going to eat or not?" Andy asked as he cut into the mood.

_***Thwack***_

"OW!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

One brunch at Sherry's later, and Team RAAA were walking through Vale's largest park, located in the Residential District, to walk off the food they'd just eaten.

Ruby ate only a _token _amount of legitimate breakfast fare, while stuffing herself with enough desert to give an ordinary girl of her height and weight-class diabetes. Arthur, despite being a Rabbit Faunus, wasn't a _hardcore _vegan like most herbivorous Faunuskin were, eating mainly _eggs _with assorted vegetables. Andy essentially shoveled entire _trayfulls _of crispy bacon down his gullet, and the mere _sight _of it caused a nearby man to clutch at his heart as though he was having a heart attack. Alana on the other hand at the quintessential _definition _of a balanced breakfast… although not the _quantity _usually displayed on TV because… I mean c'mon, who in the world ate that _much _food that it covered the entire table?

While it was the height of summer, autumn was slowly approaching, though it would still be a few months before the leaves began to change color, gifting the unofficial Team RAAA with a verdant scenery comprised of rolling hills, scattered trees, assorted ponds, and cobblestone footpaths from Vale's earliest days. Children played happily among themselves and parents basked lazily under the sun, almost without a care in the world for the world around them which, just beyond the city's walls, was teeming with Grimm that wouldn't hesitate to rip them all to shreds.

"Jeez, just _look _at all these 'sheeple'. Not a care in the world or a thought in their heads," Andy huffed as he looked at the blissful masses.

"What're you on about now?" Arthur sighed.

"These people have no fucking clue, do they? That right outside these walls there are hordes of Grimm that wouldn't hesitate to rip them all to shreds."

"That's kind of the _point _of having a nice park like this in the middle of the city. If people are happy and not thinking negatively, that takes some pressure for the border patrols at our city's walls," Ruby stated.

"Yeah, well… If there were some kind of _breach _in the near future, I doubt any of them have the _cardio _to run away fast enough," the archer huffed.

"Andy, it would take several minutes at _least _for a Grimm running at full clip to make it from the walls to the center of town, and even if the walls _were _breached, that's what all those massive sirens and fallout shelters are for," the Faunus said pointing to the sirens mounted on every other lamp post.

"Yeah, well, what if they don't come through the _walls_? What if they come from _above_, or even below?"

"The walls are all equipped with anti-air encampments and top-of-the-line radar to shoot down anything coming at us from the sky, and there haven't been any underground tunnels leading outside of Vale since Mt. Glenn collapsed," the Faunus huffed.

"Guys!" Ruby interjected. "We're here to _relax_, not talk about _work_," she huffed.

"Sorry," the two boys apologized.

_***KROOOOOOOOM!***_

The next moment there was a deafening explosion that shook the air and the earth, children and parents alike sent into a frenzy. A cloud of smoke rising in the distance, the acrid smell of smoke hit the Faunus' nose before anyone else's, Ruby taking out a pocket telescope to see where the "fire" was.

"Oh no! Someone set off an explosion at the bank!" Ruby gawped. "We have to go and stop them!"

"I thought you said we weren't _going _to talk about work~"

"SHUT THE F#&amp;K UP ANDY!" Ruby cried as she dragged Arthur and Alana to the edge of the park, Andy following behind them. It was a straight shot from the center of the park to the **First Bank of Vale**, the front entrance blown straight to hell, the sounds of screaming and fire alarms spilling out from inside. Spilling out of the bank moments later were a half-dozen men clad in white dress shirts with red vests atop them, long black pants and matching shoes, with black bowler hats featuring red bands atop their heads. The fact that they all had red-and-orange patterned scarves around the bottom halves of their faces made it _blatantly _obvious as to who did the deed. That and the fact they were all carrying SMGs.

"Well _damn, _so the Torchick Gang _is _a thing," Andy huffed as the collection of criminals ran towards what was obviously the getaway van, as evidenced by a man in similar clothing sitting behind the wheel.

"Torchwick Gang?" Ruby asked as she looked around for anyone wearing an upper-scale outfits, orange hair, and _guyliner_.

"I heard rumors that Torchwick was recruiting some extra muscle for his thefts after that one other crime family stopped lending him manpower," the archer explained. "But still, it's the middle of the day and they're attacking the most heavily-defended bank in town. Half a dozen guys on their own shouldn't be enough to get away Scott Free."

"Hold. One more criminal is exiting the building," Alana said as a seventh figure began to stride out of the now-burning bank, whom to all their surprise wasn't a Human or a Faunus, but a _Combat Android_.

Said android was humanoid in shape, its upper torso and thighs covered in a thin layer of white armor while a set of "tights" around its waist was colored orange. From the elbows and shins-down there was thicker orange armor for the extremities, silver rings separating the white and orange armor at the joints. Its head, also colored orange, was perfectly spherical, a pair of silver U-Turn pipes on the sides of its head acting like ears, a pair of large white eyes with silver-colored eyelids mounted front-and-center, bright-crimson optics glancing at everything that moved. What stood out most about it however was that a large pair of half-moon-shaped scissors were mounted atop its head, the length of the blades almost equivalent to the diameter of its head.

"What the hell kind of Combat Android uses _scissors _as its weapon?" Andy asked moments before a security guard came running out of the bank, leveling a firearm at them, regardless of the fact that not counting the android, there were a half-dozen SMGs also leveled at him.

"Drop your weapons and put your hands above your head!" the man demanded.

"How 'bout _you _drop it, rent-a-cop!" one of the Torchwick Gang grunts sneered as the white-and-orange android detached the half-moon scissors from its head and threw them with a noticeable curve, the security guard letting out a blood-curdling scream as the scissors sheared his arm clean off at the elbow, the hinged blades spinning through the air like a boomerang and returning to their source.

"What the heck just happened!?" Ruby gawked as the Torchwick Gang laughed uncontrollably as the man bled out.

"The material those scissors were made of…" Arthur muttered as he got a closer look at the Combat Android through his pocket telescope. "They're incredibly thin, light enough to fly through the air like a boomerang yet strong enough to cut through flesh and bone like it were paper, _un-ironically enough_, without losing any momentum… The only conclusion I can come to is that they're made of Ceratanium. No other material or alloy meets all those criterion simultaneously."

"Ceratanium?" Ruby asked before a lightbulb went off above her head. "Wait! Do you mean _Ceramical _Titanium?"

"Yes, how'd you know?" the Faunus asked.

"I did a report at school about the Giga City Initiative in Atlas, and one of the major innovations surrounding it was a proprietary metallic alloy used exclusively by Atlas which is stronger than titanium and lighter than ceramic, Ceramical Titanium, more-commonly referred to as Ceratanium," the red-head explained. "Dr. Light designed this lightweight material for ease of construction and strength of the city's infrastructure, but it was _also _known for its application in then-modern robotics."

"The Robot Masters… Then this means that thing over there has to be DLN-003 Cut Man," Arthur said narrowing his eyes as he examined every inch of the robot. All things considered, it wasn't all that different anatomically or mechanically from present-day Combat Androids, but that was merely because the _formula _that Doctor Light used wasn't one that required fixing. "What the hell is it doing in Vale? After that big mess known as the _Wily Wars_, all the Robot Masters, save a few small exceptions, were all supposed to be put in cold storage _indefinitely_."

"Well obviously they aren't," Andy huffed.

"Yeah, I can see that," Arthur bit out in return.

"We have to _help _that guy!" Ruby said as she ran out from behind her cover and towards the bleeding man as is bleeding stump flailed all over the place, the members of the Torchwick Gang laughing hysterically while Cut Man stood stoically off to the side, completely unresponsive.

"AAUGH! MY AAARM! AAAAAGH!" the man screamed, the other security guards inside the mall cowering in fear.

"Don't worry, I've got you!" Ruby said dropping to her knees next to the man, removing his neck tie before fastening it around his armpit as tightly as physically possible like a makeshift tourniquet.

"Hey! That's the little red riding hood the boss told us about!" one of the Torchwick Grunts said pointing at the girl's iconic red hood.

"I smell a _bonus_!" another said as he leveled his SMG at the girl and fired. Ruby, hastily throwing herself over the guard, expected bullets to shear through a large chunk of her Aura since if she dodged, then the man no longer bleeding out next to her would've been Swiss cheese.

However, instead of the low _***Thrum* **_of her Aura dissipating the impacts, there was instead a loud myriad of metal bouncing off of metal. Looking up, she saw Alana kneeling away from her, greatsword planted into the ground at her side while her scabbard had folded out sideways into a full-sized tower shield, easily deflecting the bullets from the two of them.

"Lady Rose, are you alright?" the blond asked.

"Y-Yeah, I'm good," Ruby nodded. The next moment Arthur rushed around the back of the van, dealing a flurry of slashes to the Torchwick Grunts in his wake, cutting weapons in two or taking chunks out of their Aura as the Rabbit Faunus blitzed them. One of them brandished a switch blade and ran at them, the Rabbit Faunus making no effort to dodge. The moment the man was past the grill of the van, an arrow suddenly shot through the air, the cylindrical arrowhead planting itself in the man's side and detonating violently, his Aura completely depleted dropping a charred body at Arthur's feet. Groaning audibly, the man looked up, the last thing he saw before losing consciousness being the bottom of the Faunus' sneaker.

"Alright… Who's next?" Arthur said giving the remaining Torchwick Gang a flat look, looking like a complete badass for a fleeting few moments, instead of a complete nerd like was par for the course.

"Get bent!" one of them shouted angrily as he dropped his sliced SMG and took out a sidearm, he and the remaining four taking out secondary firearms and leveling them at the Faunus. Before Ruby could tell him to get out of the way, the Faunus' left ear twitched, his left hand zipping out into his blind spot and catching the greatsword sheath Alana threw his way, the weapon-holder transforming in a flash and stopping the myriad of bullets dead in their tracks. In the same instant, Alana rushed forward and clocked two of them into la-la land with her armored fists, slashing the shotgun of a third before delivering a brutal headbutt, the three of them hitting the ground at the same time.

'_Whoa… When'd their teamwork get this good?' _Ruby thought as four of the half-dozen Torchwick Grunts were taken out in a few short seconds.

"Screw this, I'm out of here!" one of the remaining two said pulling out a hand grenade while the other scrambled into the van. The man pulling the pin and chucking it right at Ruby, in a flash of speed, Andy interposed himself between the two of them and smacked the grenade back where it came with one of the arms of his compound bow. The grenade rolling back to the grunt's feet, right as Arthur with tower shield in hand placed himself in front of the line formed by Andy, Alana, and Ruby, the once-stoic Combat Android rushed in, snatched the grenade from its place on the ground, and chucked it upward into the air, the explosive detonating above their heads.

"Hey new guys! What's taking so long?" Torchwick's voice suddenly said from the van's radio.

"W-We ran into a little complication, boss!" the driver said as he started the car, slamming his foot on the gas and reversing right into the grill of another car, the alarm going off before the van made a U-turn, the Combat Android jumping atop the van before it could go too far.

"They're getting away!" Andy bit out as he notched a duplex of arrows and let them fly, a pair of smaller half-moon scissors folding out from Cut Man's palms before he sent them through the air, each one snipping Andy's arrows in half before returning to the source. "Piss!" the archer growled.

"Hey, are you going to be okay on your own?" Ruby asked the security guard, who numbly nodded his head after realizing he _wasn't _going to die that day. "Good," the girl said with a nod. "HEY!" she snapped up at the bank. "Somebody call 9-1-1 already! They might still be able to re-attach his arm… or something!"

"So what now?" Andy asked.

"We go after them and get everyone's money back!" the girl shouted with a raised fist before running towards the nearest building and leaping atop it in a flurry of rose petals. Arthur, with his own rabbit-like traits, was quick to ascend as well in a smaller series of hops.

"Hey news flash! We can't _do_ that!" Andy shouted up at the two as they made their way along the rooftops.

"Then we'll just have to follow them on foot," Alana said securing her weapon at her side before hauling Andy off his feet and following after as best she could.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Can't you get a clean shot in?" Arthur asked, both he and Ruby easily keeping pace with the van as they cut corners across the rooftops, something only their own speed-oriented frames allowed.

"They're driving really erratically, I can't get a clean shot in…" Ruby clicked her tongue as she looked down her scope.

"Well, to be fair, snipers work best from a fixed position on higher ground. Expecting you to hit a moving target _on _the move may've been asking a bit much of you," Arthur admitted as the van took another turn, briefly disappearing from their line of sight.

"I'm not going to let Torchwick get away with another robbery! Even if it _is _only by proxy!" the girl shouted as she poured on the heat.

"Well what do you expect us to do about it?" Arthur asked as he kept pace. Unlike Ruby who _ran_, Arthur merely jumped alongside her in long powerful strides, a feat that would've given him unparalleled mobility were he in the forest.

Or a ninja.

Or a ninja _in _the forest.

"I'm _thinking_!" the girl shouted as she racked her brain. "Wait a minute, _you're smart_! Why can't _you _think of something?"

"This and that are two different _kinds _of smart!" the Rabbit Faunus raged.

"Don't you have an IQ of three-hundred or something?"

"One-fifty! And that's _pushing _it!"

"Alright! Geez! Sorry!"

"Eureka!"

"Gesundheit."

"No, I mean I just came up with something!" the Rabbit Faunus said leaping ahead.

Spinning around to face her, Arthur firmly planted his hands and the top of his skull on the ground, curling his legs up to his chest and putting his feet together. A lightbulb going off above Ruby's head, the girl nodded as she ran up to him before leaping up and placing the bottoms of her boots onto his sneakers. The Rabbit Faunu's leg muscles coiling underneath her, the red-haired girl readied her Semblance and pushed off the Faunus' double-kick, a flurry of rose petals trailing after her as the girl was sent flying farther than she could ever hope to go on her own.

Looking down at the street level, the red-haired girl locked eyes with the speeding vehicle making its getaway. Angling her body and flaring out her cloak behind her, the girl began her descent, a trail of rose petals behind her as her momentum carried her. Experimentally funneling Aura into her cloak, a smile tugging at her face as the rippling cloth hardened into a paraglider, her vertical drop momentarily turning horizontal, only for a scowl to form on her face as her once-hardened cloak began to ripple once again.

"Rrrgh."

Unfurling her Crescent Rose behind her, the girl put her boots on the underside of her blade and fired off a shot with a deafening _***KRAK***_, the girl sent flying through the air. Right as Cut Man looked up and caught sight of her, the girl had already hooked her weapon around the robot's torso, the blade biting into its chest armor as the girl's momentum dragged the two of them off the top of the van and onto the street. Rolling and tumbling, the girl swiftly returned to her feet, planting them on the ground before bringing her finger to the trigger and firing it off with another _***KRAK***_.

However, whereas every other enemy in this position had been literally cleaved clean in two, the girl only felt a small tug on her weapon before the momentum completely gave out. Looking over her shoulder, the red-head's eyes widened as Cut Man had locked the blade between a set of his collapsible hand-scissors, locking the blade in place and preventing itself from being cleaved in half. Its head turning completely around, red-glowing eyes locked onto her before the head snapped back around into place and the android spun around, flinging the girl free of her weapon.

The android's targeting reticules locking solely on the girl, it mechanically strode towards her as it snapped its arms back before flinging its hand-scissors at her. The two sets of blades whizzing through the air towards her, the girl scrambled to her feet only to catch her cloak with her boot and land on the ground face-first. Rolling onto her back and looking up, the memories of one of those very same blades taking a man's arm clean of caused the girl to flinch, bringing her arms up in front of her to guard herself.

"HEEYAH!"

_***SLASH*SLASH***_

The next moment a flash of white dropped down in front of her, silver blades swinging out and cutting each projectile in two right at the bolt that held both halves together, the four pieces of sharpened metal clattering to a stop at her feet. It took only a second to realize that the flash of white was Arthur, the Faunus flourishing his swords as he took a defensive stance in front of her.

"Arthur, what're you doing? The bad guys are getting away!" Ruby shouted once she composed herself.

"And _you _were about to get chopped up like sliced ham," the Faunus bit back, the android running towards them with another set of scissor-blades in hand. The Faunus and the android locking blades, sparks began to dance through the air as they grappled for dominance, the Combat Android trying to push forward, only for the Rabbit Faunus' powerful leg muscles to level the playing field. "Besides… if the cops are going to soak up taxpayer dollars to sit back with their _thumbs _up their asses all day, the _least _they can do… is _try _to earn their pay," Arthur said as the two struggled against one another, Cut Man eventually winning out and sending the Faunus flying back. The Faunus flipping onto his feet in mid-air, he examined the blades to see only superficial scratches on the surface, something that could easily be repaired. "Besides… you're more important to me than other people's money. Put me in this situation a hundred times, and I'd choose you _every _time."

"But what if it was _your _money that got stolen?" Ruby asked as she got to her feet, making plans to retrieve her weapon.

"There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But you… There's only one of _you _in the whole world, and that's all there's ever _going _to be. Only a dummy would give you up for something as common as money," he said resolutely before turning back to her. "Do you think I'm a dummy?"

"N-No, of course not!" the girl said, her cheeks dusted red.

"Good," the Rabbit Faunus nodded, his ears perking up before he whirled around and shouted- "Get down!"

Tackling the girl and wrapping his arms around her head, as the two of them fell towards the ground, Ruby saw a blur of gray shoot through the air between the Faunus' ears, the projectile sailing through the air towards the Combat Android before detonating with a violent _***BOOOOM!***_ The smoke clearing, Cut Man had raised his arms to guard from the explosion at the last second, only superficial scorch marks marring the orange armor on his forearms.

"I take it you lost the van?" Andy asked as he and Alana caught up to the two.

"The money isn't important," Arthur said as he helped the girl to her feet. "Besides, we're doing the cops a favor by taking away the Torchwick Gang's shiny new toy from them."

_***BOOOOOM!***_

"Aaandyyyyy!" Arthur growled as an explosion went off on the other side of the city.

"Bull_shit _that was my fault!" the archer raged as all eyes turned to him.

"Oh? And what are the odds that a _second _stolen Robot Master is on the loose?" Alana asked with a raised brow.

"Higher than most would think, actually, given the present company," Arthur said gesturing to Cut Man who threw out a multitude of scissor-blades their way. Arthur, taking a defensive stance in front of Andy as he selected another arrow from his quiver, made way for Alana to run in front of them, the powerful swings of her greatsword utterly _destroying _the ceratanium blades sent at them. Andy then notched another explosive arrow, Arthur crouching and letting the projectile fly above his head before rushing at Cut Man himself, the android rolling to the side to dodge the arrow and taking a defensive stance toward the Faunus, only for Arthur to run right past it and roll across the ground, scooping up the Crescent Rose as he went. "Ruby! Heads up!" he shouted as he placed the gun barrel to the ground and fanned the trigger, the weapon sent tumbling high into the air above Cut Man's head and into the awaiting Ruby's arms.

"Alright, team! Don't let that thing get away!" Ruby shouted pointing at Cut Man…

"He got away," Andy said plainly, the Combat Android having run through a side-street between buildings when the four of them had all been re-armed.

"AFTER HIM!" Ruby shouted as she ran after the white-and-orange-colored android.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"How can that thing be so fast?!" Andy shouted as Ruby, Arthur, and Alana ran in front of him. In that order. "It's nothing but a bucket of bolts! Half the time, Combat Androids can barely _hobble around_!"

"The Robot Masters were probably calibrated to make maximum use of minimum energy expenditure because Dust Cells at the time were relatively _new_ to the market," Arthur answered.

"RHETORICAL QUESTIOOOOON!" Andy shouted as he slapped Arthur upside the head.

"Hey! Hands off the merchandise!" Arthur and Ruby shouted at the same time.

"_Team up on me why don't ya?" _Andy muttered.

"What was that?!" the two growled.

"_Nothiiing!_"

"We're coming upon a main thoroughfare. That means more open spaces, but also more avenues of escape," Alana stated as the other end of the alley came into view.

"Keep the heat on!" Ruby shouted, the four of them right on Cut Man's tail. However, the Combat Android they were chasing suddenly poured on the heat, breaking away from them completely. Then, when they were in the middle of the street, a sudden gale-force wind struck them from the side, knocking them off their feet and causing them to bodily leave the ground as the group grabbed whatever they could to ground themselves. Alana planted her greatsword into the ground while weighed down with her armor, Andy stabbed a pair of arrows in front of him to make hand-holds, while Ruby and Arthur dangled side-long off a nearby lamp post.

"I believe someone should pick up that phone,"Arthur said as he looked up to the source of the sudden windstorm.

"What pho-"

"Because I! Fucking! Called it!" Arthur shouted as the four of them looked up to see what could only be a _second _Combat Android lumbering towards them.

While Cut Man could be mistaken for a kid in a mascot suit, the second one was anything but, its face being built into its torso instead of having a head. Situated in the center of its torso was a large wind turbine, he propeller laced with Teal Dust, its optics also a baleful shade of crimson as it switched focus between targets, the armor covering its body being dark-blue. Its arms and legs were a shade of dark-grey, its boots and right arm covered in thick yellow armor, whereas its left arm was a simple-looking arm cannon. A few small accents included yellow bulbs on the center of its propeller and forehead, a yellow ring around the edge of the wind turbine, and three whisker-looking vents at the corners of its eyes.

"Dammit, Arthur!" Andy cursed as the arrows he was using as handholds groaned before snapping in two.

"Torchwick must have sent this second Robot Master as backup for the first," Alana muttered as the wind caught enough of her frame that she too was sent tumbling backwards.

"WE… CANNOT… HANDLE THIS!" Ruby screamed as she held onto a lamp post for dear life while fighting gale-force winds. "EYAAAAAAAGH!" she screeched as her grip failed and she flailed her arms wildly through the air.

"WHY WOULD YOU SUDDENLY SAY THAT?" Arthur asked as he too tumbled through the air.

The sound of rippling cloth meeting their ears, the twos' momentum was suddenly wrested in mid-air as an arm wrapped around each of their waists. Sneakers screeching against pavement a moment later, the red-haired girl looked up to see a familiar face, whose owner was holding both herself and Arthur in an over-arm grip.

"Hey, you're the guy from the other day!" Ruby realized looking up into his violet-colored eye from his left side.

"Other day? You mean _yesterday_," the violet-eyed teen huffed. What was different about him today was that while he still had bandages wrapped around his forehead, they were no longer covering his right eye, which was a baleful shade of crimson in stark contrast to his left eye.

"Thank you for the save… Vincent," the Rabbit Faunus tucked under his other arm said reading the nametag on his apron.

"It was hard-enough explaining _one _person flying through our window to the insurance company. I'd rather not have to say why _four _people crashed into our store," the shopkeep said coming to a stop right in front of said store, both Alana and Andy sat in front of From Dust 'til Dawn's door and collecting themselves, far-enough away from the wind that they were no longer helpless. "Shit!" he swore as a broom began to fly through the air towards them, sailing at gale-force speeds as it caught the wind. Alana, raising her shield to block the potential spear, raised a brow in surprise as the shopkeep caught it instead, suffering no friction burns due to it being with his right hand, which was still bandaged. "Kid, what the hell did you do!?"

"Why do you automatically assume it was _my _fault!" the girl shouted.

"Two out of three, Little Red. Two out of three!" he snapped back as the wind began to pick up, the second Robot Master striding towards them while keeping its turbine running. "Seriously, what the hell is that thing?"

"DWN-010, also known as Air Man, created by Doctor Albert Wily instead of Doctor Thomas Light like the original Robot Masters were," Arthur answered.

" . . . I was being rhetorical, but whatever," the shopkeep huffed. "Wok! Lower the shutters so that crap doesn't keep flying through our windows!" he shouted into the store above the wind, parts of the masonry above the windows retracting inward, fence-like grating rolling down and covering the windows, reinforcing them as debris began to buffer them. The sound of crashing glass meeting their ears, the five looked up to see storefront windows beginning to give way completely, sucked out of their frames sending shards of glass flying towards them.

"Don't worry! I've got you!" Alana shouted as she brought her tower shield down in front of the civilian and shielded him, shards of glass and debris bouncing off her shield like raindrops while the others threw themselves to the ground and shielded their faces with Aura.

"Dammit, next time we're getting _bomb-proof _glass, 'cause this neighborhood's going to _shit_!" the shopkeep swore as the whole street in front of From Dust 'Til Dawn began to look like a tornado swept through it.

"Incoming!" Andy swore as another storefront window gave out, _buzzsaw _blades of all things flying out of the display and whizzing angrily as they sailed towards-

"ARTHUR!" Ruby cried as she ran over to him, only to fumble over the end of Andy's bow and land in a heap. The Faunus scrambling to his feet only to trip on the tail of his coat, both his and Ruby's eyes went wide as the buzzsaw blades sheared through the air ever-closer to him.

However, moments before the blades could slice the Faunus into pieces, Vincent's bandaged arm interceded itself into their path, a horrible _***SKREEEEEE***_ch piercing the air as the serrated discs began to scrape against the extended appendage, sparks and scraps of bandages fluttering through the air until the trio of blades ricocheted off and lodged themselves into the store's sign, missing the Faunus completely.

Everyone expected for there to be a bloody mess after the shopkeep's noble act, or even for his arm to fall off entirely. What they were instead greeted by was the sight of chrome-colored metal running the full length of his arm, the wind pulling at the bandages until a metal prosthetic running all the way up into his right sleeve and to his shoulder was revealed. While Andy's arm was blatantly mechanical in nature, a crude bludgel of an arm compared to the next-gen models coming out of Atlas, the prosthetic grafted onto the shopkeep's body may as well have been considered a _masterpiece. _

While Andy's arm consisted of tubes of pre-fabricated steel, hydraulics, servos, and ball-and-socket joints, Vincent's mechanical arm had the shape of a real arm's muscular contours, the outer layer consisting of smooth flexible bands that shifted and flexed amidst smaller bands interspaced between them, the hand and fingers articulated with an excruciating amount of detail. All in all, it looked like a normal arm covered in bands liquid metal.

That just begged the question, where did he _get _it? Atlas' newest models of cybernetic limbs left last-generation's Automail in the dust in every aspect but affordability, yet the appendage before them was _lightyears _ahead of the newest Kingdom's finest.

"Kid, quit staring at my arm," Vincent huffed as he flexed said appendage, the last of the bandages falling away. "Shit, it's going to take _forever _to cover this back up. And a _ton _of bandages."

"Dude, that arm looks freakin' _awesome_! Why'd you wanna cover it up?" Andy asked. "I mean, compared to yours, mine's just a piece of crap."

"Gee. Thanks a lot," Arthur huffed indignantly. "It isn't like I worked _hard _on that or anything."

"I cover it up because it frightens small children and makes adults less-likely to purchase anything," he said as he ushered the four of them inside. "Now hurry up inside while I go defend my home slash job. I've got an over-grown tin can to take out to the trash."

"Wait, you _live _here?" Ruby asked.

"The rent's cheap, kid," Vincent said with a flat stare. "Old man, as soon as I'm outside, lower the door-shutters and lock it down." The old man hiding behind the counter only nodded his head, pulling out a small keyboard from under the register.

"Hold on, we can help!" Ruby urged as Vincent made his way to the door.

"Last time you were out there, all _four _of you nearly smashed through our windows," the white-haired teen argued, the windows at his back rumbling from the gale-force winds now spilling against the storefront. "So… No. The four of you can just sit and wait until I'm done. _Then _you can leave. Or go out the back, I don't care which."

"What if we say _no_?" Andy asked. Not even a moment later and a metallic fist clocked him over the head, leaving him face-down on the floor with an impressive goose egg on the back of his skull.

"Anyone _else _want another hard fisting?" Vincent asked as he held up the steaming fist, the remaining Hunters-in-Training frantically shaking their heads and covering their crowns with their hands.

"Right answer," Vincent returned with a friendly smile most would associate with excellent customer service. The brief moment the door was open, wind and small debris spilled into the storefront, ending just as quickly once the door was shut and locked from the inside. Not a moment later and metallic plates began to slide over the door, a series of peek-holes allowing a small amount of the outside to be visible.

"Has… anyone _else _suddenly realized we let a _civilian_ go out to fight a killer robot?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"I just didn't want a hard fisting," Arthur said as he nudged the insensate Andy with his foot.

"He could've at _least _taken a weapon with him!" the girl argued.

"He seems to have picked up a _mop _if that counts for anything," Alana said as she looked out the peek holes. "Besides, we're only _HITs_. It isn't like we can _legally _tell him what to do during an emergency or anything."

"_Did aaaanyone get the number on the _bitch _that hit me?" _Andy grumbled through linoleum tiles.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Armed with only a mop in hand, Vincent stepped into the windy streets of Vale, his shoulder-length hair whipping behind him as Air Man continued to belt out a turbulent column of wind. Trash and other light debris flowed horizontally in a spiral, car tires scraped on the ground as their bulky frames caught the wind, and tiny pieces of asphalt skipped across the road. Storefront windows trembling wildly, some of them began to break, their contents spilling out into the low-pressure zone and sent the storekeep's way.

'_This little storefront might be all I know…' _Vincent thought as the wind whipped his hair, revealing the bandages across his forehead. _'But even so…'_

**Cue Boku no Hero Academia OST – You Say Run**

"I WILL DEFEND IT!" Vincent roared as he ran forward into the wind, the mop in his hands a blur of silver as he twirled the weapon like a propeller and parted the wind before him.

His voice howling against the wind as he ran forward, any and all debris that came his way was completely destroyed by the shaft of stainless steel he twirled in his hands. Moments later a _mailbox _of all things came barreling down the street towards him, the cube of blue metal clanging and tumbling as it made its way toward him. The heterochromatic teen's eyes narrowing, he braced himself with his left foot and squared his right, roaring as he brought his right arm to bear and backhanded the mailbox aside, a fist-shaped indent left as the metal buckled and warped.

"Remember… Remember… Remember who you are…" he growled lowly, the teen flinching as a lance of pain shot through his forehead above his right eye, his hand going to his head. The metal of his artificial hand cool against his bandaged skin, his heterochromatic eyes snapped open, flickering rapidly like strobe lights until they glowed a blinding shade of silver, ethereal ribbons spilling out the corners of his eyes and billowing in the wind behind him. "I don't remember much… but I _do _know…" he growled as the glowing of his eyes intensified, his hair beginning to stand on end. "This fake wind… is really… PISSING ME _OFF_!"

Throwing his left hand forward with an angry yell, fingers splayed, the torrential wall of wind sent by Air Man suddenly abated as an equally-strong gale of silver-tinged wind came from _behind _the shopkeeper, the two fronts slamming into one another causing the debris caught between to swirl in a chaotic spiral. Deep down in Air Man's own CPU, his anemometer sent a flurry of crimson **[****ERROR] **notices across its HUD as it registered an opposing storm front of unknown origin. Swiftly calculating an appropriate course of action, more power was diverted to its primary turbine, the wind spilling out of its body increasing in magnitude, its feet skidding back from the force. Vincent, growling angrily, impaled the end of his mop into the asphalt with his robot arm before bracing his right foot against it. Standing against the wind, he then threw out his right arm, the silver ribbons spilling out of his eyes exploding in magnitude as the tailwind at his back grew in power, once again putting them on-even.

Glowing-red eyes narrowing as once again its wind was stopped, additional hardware forced the **[ERROR] **prompts to recede from its HUD, all its limiters removed causing its turbine to spin even _faster_, the inner mechanisms beginning to glow white-hot, acrid smoke mixed into the wind it exuded. The white-haired teen letting out a guttural roar, the silver glow from his eyes suddenly began to spill out of splayed fingers, his own wind one again matching that of the Combat Android before him. The whirring of Air Man's primary turbine turning into a keening screech, the volume of smoke spilling out of its body only increased in magnitude until a violent explosion sent smoke and shrapnel spilling out both the front and back of its body. The moment its own wind died down, the headwind buffeting its frame threw it off its feet, abating moments later as the shopkeep nearly collapsed, hands clasping his knees as he panted greedily for air.

"YEAAAAH!" the white-haired teen roared, even as the ribbons of light spilling out of his eyes died down. "How do you like me now?!"

Air Man pushing himself to his feet with a loud _***BLAAAAAT* **_of dissatisfaction, its optics re-focusing on its target as fire-suppression systems filled its torso cavity with oxygen-suppressing foam, the smaller turbine in its left gun-arm began to whir before a miniature tornado about three feet tall was belched out. This was followed by five more, half a dozen strong as the wall of weather phenomena began to tear down the street toward their intended target.

"Rrrgh! I'm not done yet!" the white-haired teen growled as he bit his lip, scrunching his brow in concentration as a trail of blood dribbled down his chin. "Blades of wind, slice them!" he intoned as he crossed his arms in front of himself, eyes once more aglow as the air rippled around him. **"Air Slash!" **he shouted as he threw his hands out, a dozen discs of wind spilling out of the space around him and ripping the miniature cyclones to shreds as they spiralled around him erratically.

Air Man letting out a surprised warbling sound as its Air Shooter was nullified, it quickly leveled its arm once more, miniature turbine spooling as its Dust-laden propellers collected air.

"O wind, pierce my foes!" Vincent intoned as he drew back his right fist to his side, left palm before it. **"Air Lance!" **he said throwing out his left hand, a spear of silver wind shrieking through the air before severing Air Man's arm off completely at the elbow.

Air Man letting out a series of frantic-sounding beeps and clicks, it quickly turned on its heels and ran, only for a silver shaft to fly through the air, spearing it through the back of the right knee and causing it to stumble. Whirling around, bracing itself even as the hydraulics in its legs began to fail, its HUD identified the projectile as a mop, its frame bent and warped from being launched at such an unreal speed. Looking up, its HUD began to let out a series of proximity warnings as the shopkeep barreled down on it with reckless abandon in his now dual-colored eyes.

"HRAAAAAGH!" Vincent roared as he closed the distance, stomping on Air Man's right foot with his left and pinning it in place. Rearing back his metal-borne fist, the shopkeep twisted at the waist and raised his right heel. Twisting his arm in a corkscrew, all these small motions combined into a tremendous force as Vincent's metal arm slammed into Air Man's left cheek with a deafening **_*CLAAAANG!* _**that pierced the air like a gunshot, silver knuckles stained with dark blue paint as the Combat Android was staggered, an impressive fist-shaped indent left in its left cheek. The Combat Android finally wrenching its foot free, attempted to run away, the shopkeep's eyes narrowing dangerously as the mop it took through the knee scraped and screeched against hydraulics.

"NO YOU _DON'T_!" Vincent shouted as his hand snaked forward and wrenched the knee from the android's now-destroyed knee, black hydraulic fluid now staining his apron as the combat's ruined leg crumpled underneath its weight. Taking hold of the mop in both hands, Vincent snapped the twisted shaft of metal in half over his knee, twirling both halves in his hands before lunging forward with a savage yell, Air Man's crimson optics going wide and numerous **[DANGER] **prompts spilling across its HUD moments before they were both gouged out, showers of fluid and sparks spilling into the air and staining the shopkeep's clothes.

"Call me the _Can Opener_, 'cause I'm about to bust _open _your sorry metal ass," he growled as he pinned Air Man's remaining arm to the ground with his foot. Drawing back his right arm and readying a knife-handed strike, a streak of silver followed as his arm dove into the metal between Air Man's now-destroyed optics, the white-haired teen fumbling against Air Man's flailing frame before he ripped out a large circuit board enclosed in ballistic glass, the machine's struggling ceasing altogether seconds later. "Hasta la vista. Baby."

**END OST**

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**A few minutes ago…**

"I can't really _tell _from this far back… but is he using Teal Dust to match Air Man's wind?" Ruby asked as she squinted her eyes in front of the view-slat.

"Well, he _does _work in a Dust Shop… so it isn't outside the realm of possibility," Arthur commented as he looked at the wall-mounted Dust dispensers. That the place had this _many _for powdered Dust meant that while quaint, it was actually quite successful.

"Wait a minute… that thing can shoot _tornadoes _now?" Andy asked as he peeked through one of the slats, nursing his bump with a cold soda.

"Just what kind of genius _was _Dr. Wily that he could make weapons so advanced?" Ruby asked as she watched the fight. "Those things can even _sustain _themselves without continued input."

"Well, Dr. Wily's specialty _was _weaponry. In fact, most of the Sniper Joe's mechanisms could be accredited to the man alone. However, Dr. Light predominantly shone in _programming_, to make them incredibly human-like in how they interacted with people, so that's why Dr. Wily was always overshadowed by his colleague," Arthur stated as he squinted his eyes.

"I'm more curious about where Vincent received his training," Alana stated as she observed the white-haired teen with a critical eye, watching as he conjured multiple discs of wind that ripped the mini-tornadoes to shreds before he blasted its gun-arm off with another wind-based attack.

"Oh snap! He just gouged out its knee!" Andy yelped. "Oh shit! Now he's gouged both its _eyes_ out!"

"Optics," Arthur corrected. "Still, who knew a mop could be such a deadly weapon?"

"I did!" Ruby chirped.

"Okay, who _else _but Ruby?" the Faunus asked in jest.

"Geez, that guy's really going _nuts _out there," Andy commented as he watched the shopkeep rip something out of Air Man's face.

"Well, the important hardware _does _tend to be located up there," Ruby hummed. "I mean where _else _would they put it? The torso? That's just dumb."

_***Rap-Rap-Rap***_

"Wok, I'm back. Can you let me in? I finished taking out the trash."

A few taps on the keyboard behind the counter later and the metal shutters and grating began to retract into the sub-ceiling, a key undoing the lock and letting the shopkeep back in. Other than a few tears in his clothing and some specks of blood on his apron, as well as the wind-swept hair, Vincent didn't look any worse for wear than he did when he first left.

"Here."

"What is this?" Arthur asked as the shopkeep tossed him a circuit board encased in ballistic glass.

"No idea, but judging by the lab coat, you seem like a smart guy, so maybe _you _can tell me something about what the hell just happened," Vincent replied. "Now… Are the four of you just going to loiter here all day, or are you actually going to _buy _something?"

"Oh crap! That's right! We were chasing a_nother _robot before this!" Ruby realized.

"Well don't just stand there! _After _it!" Andy shouted.

"But how will we find it now that we have lost sight of it?" Alana asked.

" . . . " Off to the side, the old man gave a dismissive shrug.

"Yeah, the old man's right. Just follow the trail of destruction and that'll lead you straight _to _whatever it was you were chasing," Vincent replied.

"Wait, you under_stood _that?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, didn't you?"

"Um, look, thank you for sheltering us during that storm and all, but we really have to get going," Ruby said bowing her head.

"Be sure to use the _door _this time," he said standing protectively in front of the left window

"How do you even _know _about that?" Ruby asked, not remembering seeing hide nor hair of him that night right before her admission to Beacon.

"Who do you think cleaned up after you while the old man called the insurance company?"

" . . . Touché," Ruby returned, figuring Vincent must've been in the back running inventory or something when Torchwick came in.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

Oddly enough, it was surprisingly easy to get back onto Cut Man's trail from where it'd been left off. But not because it had left a _literal_ trail of destruction to follow. No, it was because it had apparently re-grouped with the Torchwick Gang from before and proceeded to carry out _another _robbery. In broad daylight! Although to clarify, it wasn't the _same _members of the Torchwick Gang aside from the getaway driver. The guys who were knocked out before were left on the street where they fell, so these were _new _ones.

Gotta thank FacePages and all the people with ICD/Impulse Control Disorder who made minute-by-minute updates onto that site _every waking moment_.

"Seriously? A convenience store?" Andy asked as he looked down at them, twirling an arrow in his hands as he did. At the moment, the four of them were hidden on a rooftop across the street, peeking over the side every once in a while to stay abreast of the situation. Instead of robbing another bank, the Torchwick gang members had settled on robbing a convenience store, some of them filling up bags with money, cigars, wine, or other merchandise, while the others took pot shots at the cops to keep them at bay.

"Well, the bank was a bust, so I suppose they had to try _something _to recoup the losses," Arthur shrugged as he ran a whetstone over his twin swords.

"Even if Cut Man _does _manage to get away, at the very least, Air Man won't be coming back for a while," Ruby said looking back to Arthur's schoolbag, the hardware taken from Air Man's remains safely tucked away.

"So… How do we approach this?" Alana asked, keeping an eye on the orange Combat Android as it ripped apart any of the police's _own _androids they sent in to try and break the siege.

"Well... What do we know about that thing?" Ruby asked as she eyed Cut Man as it ripped apart another LOKI mech with its hand-scissors.

"Based on how it took that security guard's arm off without hesitation, it obviously acts without any regard towards human life," Arthur analyzed. "That thing can and _will _attempt to kill us if we get in Torchwick's way. Assuming he's the one holding the strings in the _first _place."

"Can't we try to _talk _to him?" Ruby asked. "Dr. Light designed his Robot Masters to be human-_like_, so maybe we could snap him out of it?"

"Right now that thing isn't the lumberjack robot Dr. Light made," Arthur said shaking his head. "Right now, it's just a mindless killing machine that's been re-programmed to only follow a criminal's orders."

"So... talking _won't _work," Ruby said sadly.

"No, it will not," Alana said shaking her head. "Lady Rose, if you hadn't stepped forward, that man from the bank would've bled out on the street. As long as Torchwick controls that thing, it'll drag Dr. Light's name through the mud."

"Is that old guy even still _alive_?" Andy asked.

"Apparently he was forced into _retirement _after the dust _finally _settled, but apart from that, no one knows where he is now," Arthur shrugged. "But even if we _did _decide to pay the inter-continental fees for the CCT, it isn't like the Atlas Council would let us talk to him _anyway_."

"So for the time being, we're on our own," Ruby hummed. "Alright, listen, this is important, but we can't _completely _destroy him."

"_It_. Destroy _it_," Andy interjected.

"Dr. Light intended for Cut Man to be a _him_, so that's what I'm going to call him," Ruby pouted.

"Whaaat_ever_," Andy shrugged.

"Look, the point is, we can't completely destroy Cut Man until we find some kind of _clue_," Ruby argued. "At the very least, try to leave his head intact. That's probably where the I.C. chip will be."

"Alright. I'll try to leave the head intact," Andy shrugged.

"What is the battle plan, then?" Alana asked.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

While four auxiliary members of the recently-established Torchwick Gang were looting a convenience store for whatever they could carry out in the getaway van, two of the lesser members were in the back, watching the hostages while guarding the back door. The hostages, included two store clerks, one young, one old, a single mother and her two children of opposing genders, and lastly an old man with greying hair and a cane. All of them were scared, none moreso than the mother who was shielding her two children, their wrists and ankles bound by duct tape.

"This is such _bullshit_, man," Goon #1 grumbled.

"Shut _up_, man," Goon #2 bit back.

"I'm just sayin', why do _we _have to get the shit jobs?" Goon #1 asked.

"Cause fuck _you_, that's why," Goon #2 bit back.

"I'm just sayin', why can't _we _be up front?"

"I can _literally_ count the number of fucks I give without saying a word," Goon #2 grumbled back, completely unaware of a pair of red rabbit-like eyes looking at them from the confines of the overhead air vent.

"I'm just sayin', it's the _principle _of the matter," Goon #1 grumbled, a Swiss Army Knife undoing the screws to the air vent grate in the background.

"Oh my fucking _god_! If you start _one more_ sentence with "_I'm just sayin'", _I'm gonna kick your ass!" Goon #2 growled, brow twitching like there was no tomorrow. So-engrossed were the two in their bickering, they both failed to notice the lab coat-wearing Faunus slipping out of the vent. Drawing a pair of taser-tipped arrows from the inside of his coat, he quickly jammed them into the napes of their necks, electrocuting the two and sending them into la-la-land.

"Huh, and here I thought Taser Arrows were self-indulgent," Arthur hummed as he dropped the spent arrows, before turning to the hostages. "Shhh. Don't worry. We're going to get you out of here," he said as he took out one of his swords and swiftly began to undo the hostages' restraints. A moment later the door to the storefront opened, Goon #3 poking his head in before leveling his weapon at them.

"Hey! What's going on here!" Goon #3 demanded as he looked between the downed goons and the Rabbit Faunus. Before he could bring his finger to the trigger, a sniper round suddenly struck him in the chest almost point-blank, shattering his Aura in one hit and knocking him flat on his ass. The hostages looking up, were surprised to see an adorable red-hooded girl smiling brightly at them, the "smoking gun" in her hands as she poked her head out of the air vent.

"Have no fear, _Ruby _is here!" the girl beamed as she brought her legs up to her chest before dropping out of the vent feet-first. However, the moment she left the vent, her cloak snagged on something, leaving her dangling by her neck. "Not like this... Not like this!" she panicked, her face slowly turning blue as she was hung by her cloak.

"Ah! Ruby!" Arthur cried as he grabbed her feet and lifted her up.

"Hey, what's going on in here?" Goon #4 demanded as he came in.

"I don't have _time _for this!" Arthur growled irritably as he unsheathed one of his swords before throwing it.

_***SQUELCH***_

"AAAAAGH!" Goon #4 cried as the sword impaled him through the (left) knee, dropping him onto the floor.

"Huh. Guess that one didn't have Aura," Andy shrugged as he clambered out of the vent, un-snagging Ruby's hood on the way out.

_"Hey! I heard a noise!" _Goon #5 shouted from the storefront.

"_Damn _these guys are incompetent," Andy grumbled as he opened the back door, Alana barrelling through moments later. The moment Goon #5 stormed into the back room, he was met face-first with Alana's shield as she mowed through him, giving the hostages a clear route to the exit.

"Still, that just means there's only one left," Ruby hummed as she pulled back the slide on her rifle. "Let's go kick that guy's ass."

"What, like all at the same time?" Arthur asked as he and Ruby stepped out into the store from the back.

_***CLONK***_

"Done," Andy hummed as he clocked Goon #6 over the head with his automail hand.

"Huh. That was fast," Ruby stated.

"Aren't we forgetting something?" Arthur asked before feeling a pair of crimson-colored optics fall on him. "Oh right... That."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

For the VPD, having members of a criminal gang successfully robbing the **First Bank of Vale **was understandably, quite the significant insult. Sure, with the exception of one guy, all of them were caught after the first crime, but that the VPD _proper _didn't have anything to do with it was still quite the blow to their pride. That's why, when reports of the "Torchwick Gang" committing a _second _robbery came in, they scrambled to get onto the scene and recover some of their stolen thunder. Hopefully the ones that chased the Torchwick Gang off at the first site were _actual _Huntsmen and not just a bunch of kids, otherwise they were going to lose a _ton _of clamor over this.

At the moment there were three patrol cars parked in front of the convenience store with a fourth on the way, two officers to a car on-site.

"Sir, we just lost another LOKI mech," one officer whimpered as a pair of flying scissors ripped said mech to shreds.

"I can _see _that," an officer with captain's stripes grumbled angrily, his rotund belly jiggling as he shifted his weight.

_***BANG!***_

"Shot's fired! Shot's fired!" the captain yelped as he ducked back behind his car.

"Sounded more like _one _shot to me," another officer stated.

"Besides, how's this any different from Torchwick's goons taking pot shots at us?" another questioned.

"Hey... Shut up!" the captain bit back after a moment's hesitation.

"Is it just me, or did things suddenly get really quiet in there?" an officer voiced up, the others taking cursory glances over the frames of their cars before a screaming blond with a tower shield bodily shoved the scissor-throwing Combat Android out the front door and out into the street. Continuing her mad charge before throwing said android into the next block with unreal strength, three more teenagers with varying weapons flooded out of the store and took after her.

"For the record..." a scraggly elf-like teen said jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. "You're welcome."

The rather _rude _teenager running off to join his peers, one of the officers looked up from his hiding place to find all of the half-dozen Torchwick Gang knocked out or otherwise incapacitated on the ground. One of them had a rather _large _sword wound through his knee, but there was a tourniquet wrapped above it, so that could be written off as collateral.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Cue Super Smash Bros. (WiiU) OST - Cut Man Stage**

While last-gen gyroscopic technology was nowhere near as efficient as current models, when it came to the Robot Masters, that line of thinking only held true on _paper._ When currently-last-gen gyroscopic technology was combined with the masterful engineering of the likes of Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, or Dr. Cossack, those factors combined made a Combat Android capable of reorienting itself just as well as the now-modern models that succeeded it. That was largely due to the fact that the "Three Sages" of robotics (called so because they were all old, _wise _men) were the _trend-setters_, their genius an anachronism to the age in which they held prominence. Even in the modern-day, people who could match their intelligence and ingenuity were far and few between.

That was also why, despite being thrown into the next city block, Cut Man easily re-oriented itself in midair. Its orange boots scraping against asphalt as it locked onto new targets, its directives changed from an assist-oriented to an attack-oriented paradigm. However, its crimson-glowing optics were _doubly-_focused on the little girl in the red hood.

"Alright, guys! Let's do it _right _this time!" Ruby said rallying her friends as she brandished her scythe.

"Yeah!" the rest of Team RAAA called out as they flanked Ruby, the red-hooded girl taking the lead and opening up with a horizontal slash; one that Cut Man easily back-stepped away from before brandishing a pair of hand-scissors and lunging for the jugular.

"Ruby isn't the _only _one you have to face!" Arthur said as he locked blades with the Combat Android. Body alight with a shining white Aura as he pushed back, his left ear twitched as the sound of a bowstring drawn to full weight met him, and he leaned his head to the right barely a moment before an arrow whizzed by and struck Cut Man in the face.

"Tell Torchwick he done goofed!" Andy shouted as the White Dust-laden "Concussion Arrow" hit Cut Man with all the force of a speeding soccer van, snapping the android's head back. Cut Man's head would've been knocked clean off if it hadn't back-flipped at the last moment, using the force to carry it away from the Faunus as it readied its head-scissors. Its proximity warning going off, moments before its feet could touch the ground, Alana came in and delivered a powerful shield bash that sent the android flying in a completely different direction, sparks spilling out of its right shoulder and hip joints as it tumbled across the ground. Righting itself, crimson eyes darted around the battlefield, multiple **[Lock-On]** prompts appeared on its HUD and highlighting the four teens, their biometrics added to its spatial awareness database.

"Mega Man might've been a "super fighting robot", but here there's _four _of us! We _can't _lose!" Ruby cheered, pumping everyone up.

"Don't get cocky! Only _guys _can get away with that, and that's because we-"

"Have penises! Yes! We know!" Arthur bit out as he glanced at his swords, additional score marks crossing his blades. _'Maybe I can salvage some Ceratanium to make better cladding for my swords, assuming I can melt it down again. There certainly doesn't seem to be any_ shortage _of the stuff!_' Arthur thought as Cut Man began throwing out multiple boomerang-ing hand-scissors at them, the spinning half-moon blades arcing through the air round them. Ruby and Andy dodged them altogether, Alana swatting them to the ground with her greatsword or batting them away with her shield, while Arthur slashed at them with his dual swords, splitting them in half at the bolt holding both halves together.

"It's getting desperate!" Andy said as Cut Man slowly backpedaled with a noticeable limp, its right hip sparking with each step.

"Keep the pressure on!" Ruby said as she reconfigured her scythe into a rifle and began to shoot the hand-scissors out of the air like clay pigeons; a very worthwhile exercise as present results showed. Her clip running empty a few seconds later, Ruby dropped it to the ground before reaching into her pouch. Drawing the new clip of Drill Rounds, she looked between it and Cut Man before shaking her head, putting it back in. A second later her fingers brushed against the Braille label on another magazine, the girl nodding her head as she pulled it out before slotting it in without a moment's hesitation. The loaded magazine featuring a zig-zagging bolt of lightning striking the ground, like the decal implied, her sniper rifle spit out a glowing round colored the brightest shade of azure, arcs of electricity swirling around it as it flew through the air. "Hey Arthur!"

"Yes, Ruby?" the Faunus asked as Cut Man dodged the first electrified round. What _else _would you use when fighting a robot?

"I know I'm piling a lot on you. And you can _totally _take your time with this. But when you have the time. Do you think you could make me. A Dart Leader like Gunvolt's?" Ruby asked between shots.

"Huh. And here I thought you'd ask me that _sooner_," Arthur hummed as Cut Man continued to dodge the electric rounds, if only barely.

A better question to ask than what _else _you'd use on a robot, is what it'd know most to _dodge_?

"The idea _just _came to me," Ruby replied.

"Well, I could make a dart-launcher _like _the Dart Leader, but your hair isn't conductive enough to carry a charge even _if _it were clad in the right kind of metal..."

"Are we _seriously _having this conversation right now?" Andy asked as he ripped a nearby brick out of a wall with his automail hand.

"Andy!" Alana glowered.

"What? I need ammo," Andy shrugged as his robot arm strained for a few seconds before the brick crumpled in his grip. Picking out some of the larger pebbles from the bunch, he quickly unfolded an arm-braced slingshot from his belt before loading said pebbles into place. Cladding them with his Semblance, he let the projectiles fly, Cut Man's optics immediately identifying them but ruling them out as a non-threat.

A calculation that would ultimately prove to be its downfall.

_***Boom*Bang*Krakow***_

The three pebbles that struck its chassis detonating like cherry bombs, Cut Man was brutally thrown onto its back. Three scorch marks hewn across its chest from the unlikely explosives, Cut Man rose to its feet as it began to actively dodge the pebbles sent its way by the slingshot-using teen. Rolling and dodging more-frantically as it dodged exploding pebbles and electric sniper rounds alike, eventually a small _shower _of sparks spilled out of the gap at its right hip, the combat android falling to its knee as the leg buckled completely. Looking up just in time to see an electrified sniper round strike it in the chest, the android was laid out flat on its back moments later, body convulsing like a person struck by a taser. Moments later a whole _brick _clattered to a stop at its feet, the piece of masonry glowing softly before the light suddenly became blinding.

**_*KABOOOOM!*_**

Before Cut Man could even close its eyes to stop the overload to its optics, the brick that Andy tossed its way detonated _very _violently, the explosive force of a pipe bomb _literally _going off at its feet and sending it flying through the air. Both its legs blown clean off, the now legless torso tumbled haplessly through the air before landing face-first on the round, bouncing once, then twice, before completely stopping. Sparks of electricity leaping from frayed wires as hydraulic fluid spilled out of its torso like a bifurcated Human's blood, the android twitched frantically, eyes darting in every direction as systems failed in an unending cascade of **[WARNING]** and **[ERROR] **prompts.

Ruby stepped forward a few seconds later, looking down sadly at the reprogrammed android before she raised up her scythe, decapitating it in one clean motion. The severed head rolling across the ground, its crimson optics dimmed to blue before its eyelids shut, and the Combat Android shut down.

**END OST**

"Normally this would be a _flag_, but seeing as how we _literally _decapitated it, I think I can get away with saying this," Andy hummed before letting out a tired sigh. "Whew. Looks like it's over."

"Yes, we noticed," Alana sighed as she collapsed her shield and returned her sword to its scabbard.

"C'mon! Gimme a hand to get its I.C. chip before the cops arrive!" Ruby said waving the others forward, Arthur taking out his Swiss Army Knife before Ruby snatched it out of his hand, and she began to loosen the screws on the back of Cut Man's head. Finding a large motherboard enclosed in ballistic glass, Ruby slotted it out and let out a sigh of relief that the hardware wasn't damaged, before she slid it into her pouch next to her sniper rounds. Arthur off to the side picking up discarded Ceratanium scissor-blades while Andy wiped away Ruby's fingerprints, the bulk of them almost jumped completely out of their skins as police sirens rounded the corner, red and blue lights illuminating the bunch as police officers began to spill out onto the street.

"Alright you brats, what's going on here?" the rotund police captain grumbled as he walked up to the four of them.

"W-We were just making sure Cut Man's down for the count!" Ruby said snapping up a salute.

"And _who _gave you runts the right to step in?" the man said talking down to them.

"The Hunter Union did," Alana answered as she planted the end of her scabbard into the ground.

"Yeah, well... I don't care _what _your fancy _union _has to say. A bunch of wet-behind-the-ears _kids _don't have any right getting in the way of adult business," the man grumbled. "I'm in a good mood today, so I'll let you off with a warning," he said as he shoved his way through them, planting his foot on Cut Man's head as the media began to roll up, much to Ruby's ire.

_"Big_ talk _for a donut-eating _pig," Andy muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" the rotund officer glowered as he shot the teen the stink-eye before turning his attention back to the public, acting as though the _police _were the ones to take down the robot.

"He said we were just leaving," Alana said grabbing the archer's wrist with an armor-clad grip and leading him away, Arthur dragging Ruby away with an under-armed grip as she flailed angrily at the fat man taking the credit for what they did.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

The ferry ride back to Patch was rather tense for the four teens. Not because any of them were under any kind of _suspicion _or anything. Instead it was because as soon as they sat down, the news feeds began to laud the VPD for _their _supposed role in taking down the recent insurgence of the Torchwick Gang, even though the police didn't actually do _anything _in all their gross incompetence.

That the one police captain from before went as far as to claim _credit _for defeating Cut Man practically had Ruby pulling a _Yang _where she sat. It was only after the guy talked himself into a corner regarding _Air Man_, and him forcing the cameras out of his face whereas moments before he couldn't seemingly get _enough _of the limelight, that Ruby began to calm down. And while Ruby didn't rally her friends together to beat the Torchwick Gang _for _the accolades, that the people they saved _contradicted _the police's testimony in regards to _who _saved them and who fought whom, made the girl smile.

Of course, once the adrenaline wore off, the excitable girl was understandably tired, falling asleep right into the crook of Arthur's neck, much to his flushed embarrassment. Andy snickered at him from the sidelines, Alana flicked him in the forehead with an armored finger, and Arthur... he tried not to shift too much in his sleep and wake the sleeping girl at his side. Looking down at her unoccupied hands, he nervously reached out toward delicate fingers, wanting to grasp them with his own... but decided against it a few seconds later. Andy accused the Faunus of chickening out, but Arthur rebutted that doing so in her sleep wouldn't be right. That he wanted to hold her hand while she was awake, when _she _wanted to, and to see her smiling up at him when... _if _that happened.

Andy of course called him a sappy nerd, and Alana flicked him again, leaving a bruise despite his Aura being on.

"Little Red. Little Red, it's time to wake up," Andy said shaking Ruby's shoulder once the ferry reached its destination, the red-head yawning cutely as she was roused from her slumber. Blinking her eyes a couple times, she then looked to her right, the girl nose-to-nose with Arthur, his face flushed bright red. Ruby blinked her eyes a couple times, still half-asleep until she yelped loudly and leapt back. However, when her cloak snagged on Arthur's schoolbag, she wound up pulling him from his seat, before taking him down to the floor with her.

"Agh!"

"Eyagh!"

_***WHAM!***_

"Jeez, this is some rom-com shit right here," Andy said as he and Alana looked down at the pair and their rather... _compromising_, position. Ruby was flat on her back, wide-eyed and clutching the back of Arthur's head forcing his face into her budding bosom, her right leg wrapped around his waist while her left leg was draped over his shoulder. Arthur was blushing beet red from his place within ruby's chest, his right hand grasping a supple handful of her stocking clad thigh while his left hand had _somehow _snaked its way under her blouse, his fingertips ghosting under her bra to the ripe fruit that lay within.

"T-This wasn't my fault! I swear!" Arthur cried frantically, the girl's face continuing to redden until she raised up her hand.

_***SLAP!***_

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

_"Don't see why_ I'm _the one that got slapped,_" Andy grumbled as he followed Ruby and Arthur to the latter's room, a prominent hand-shaped flashing red across the left side of his face, Alana chuckling behind him, while the two lovebirds walked almost shoulder-to-shoulder and twiddling their fingers.

"A-Alright, we're here," Arthur said as they stopped at one of the doors in Signal's dormitory, opening it with his Scroll. Whereas Beacon accommodated teams of four, the dorms at Signal were reserved largely for those who didn't live on Patch proper. For that reason, all the residents had to use a communal bathroom for each floor, while the rooms themselves only consisted of a single bed, a desk by the window, a couple dressers opposite the bed, and there was _just _enough space left over for a single workbench.

Arthur's room of course was one befitting the most academically-minded person on "Team Ray". Taped to almost every available surface of the walls were papers depicting countless mathematical and metallurgical formulas, a few papers slapped onto the window dimming the light from the outside drowning the room in a slight darkness; something that was no problem for a Faunus' perfect visual acuity in the dark. Tacked to the back of the workbench were blueprints of various completion levels depicting countless weapons, gadgets, and appliances, some of which littered the surface of the work space _also _in varying states of completion, leaving only a small amount of room for tools and other mechanical aids. The desk was the cleanest part of the room, stacks of homework organized into neat piles, schoolbooks lined against the back of the desk by subject, and a perfectly-organized pencil case situated in the forward right corner of the desk. The only real source of light was a single desk lamp affixed to the side of the desk, a cone-shaped shade affixed to a flexible segmented neck. There also appeared to be an old radio atop the desk, and a mini-fridge tucked in the corner.

"M-Make yourselves at home. Don't mind the mess," Arthur said guiding everyone in, Ruby first, followed by Alana, then Andy. Because the room only accommodated a single person, this meant that there was little elbow room to be had, forcing Arthur to squeeze past his peers, he and Ruby blushing beet as their developing frames brushed past one another.

"I'd say get a room, but we're already _here_, so..." Andy hummed as he rocked on his feet. _***Clonk* **_"Ow!" the archer cried as Alana clocked him over the head.

"Sir Asimov, why have we reconvened in your dormitory?" Alana asked as she squinted in the darkness.

"We needed a place to talk without any eyes or ears on us," Arthur said as he drew the blinds shut before turning on the desk lamp and angling the bulb towards his desk. Taking out his Scroll and angling it around the room, he used what appeared to be a custom-made App to look for any wireless signals associated with Bugs, but failed to find any after a couple minutes. "Ruby, do you have Cut Man's I.C. chip?"

"Yeah, right here," Ruby said taking the ballistic-protected motherboard out of her ammo pouch.

"Adding Air Man's I.C. chip, and that gives us two," Arthur then said as he placed the two of them on his desk, side-by-side.

"Hold up, doesn't this count as tampering with evidence?" Andy asked aloud.

"As long as there's no evidence to the contrary, everyone will think one of Torchwick's guys took them," Arthur replied, before taking the radio from atop his desk, positioning it by the door, and putting it on a country music channel to give anyone at the door some white noise. "Anyway, we should probably get to the crux of the issue before they do something like shut down the ferries or something."

"Right," Ruby said with an affirmative nod as she strode towards Arthur's desk, leaning on it as she looked down at the I.C. chips laid across it. "As I've probably said before, back at Beacon I did a history report about the Giga City Initiative concerning their then-next-gen Robot Master. Because I had help from Dr. Oobleck, I was able to get a lot of information about it, so when we fought Cut Man and even Air Man today, that's when I noticed something was really, _really _wrong with them."

"Wrong like _how_?" Andy asked.

"While it's true that Dr. Light gave his initial Robot Masters complete autonomy without any form of oversight, because their AI were _kind-hearted _in nature, they never actually hurt anyone without prior tampering," Ruby explained. "While Dr. Wily _did _re-program Dr. Light's first Robot Masters, something about _this _was different."

"You mean because they utterly lacked in personality?" Arthur asked.

"Yes! Exactly!" Ruby replied.

"For those of us who are not technologically versed as you two," Alana said gesturing to herself without shame, "would you care to explain what exactly it is we're looking at?"

"Uhhh... Arthur, a little help here?" Ruby asked nervously, feeling a little put-on-the-spot. "These don't shoot bullets or _cut _anything, sooooooo..."

"Don't worry, Ruby. I've got you," Arthur replied. "Alright, what you're looking at are your then-standard, last-generation I.C. chip, otherwise known as an Integrated Circuit chip. I.C. chips are essentially the "blue box computer" that contains the cognitive circuits of anything that uses AI regardless of complexity-level, be it a Combat Android, or one of those holographic receptionists you'll find in the C.C.T. The reason the I.C. chips are some of the most-protected hardware, especially in a Combat Android, is because as long as the I.C. chip remains undamaged, even if the body is totally destroyed, the _"same" _Combat Android can be rebuilt as many times as necessary, you simply need to replace the parts, or put it in a new mobile platform."

"So then essentially, the I.C. chip is it's _brain_, or its _soul_?" Alana asked.

"Yes to the brain, no to the soul," Arthur replied as he turned one of the I.C. chips over in his hands. "While it's true that they could think and feel, that only worked to a very _finite _extent." Seeing the completely lost looks on Alana and Ruby's faces, he decided to reiterate. "Any emotions they may have displayed _initially _were completely artificial in nature."

"_Artificial?_" Ruby asked with a confused look. "I thought Dr. Light's robots _could _think and feel."

"That's a common misconception most would have before the novelty of it wore off," Arthur replied. "Robots like DLN-001, otherwise known as "Rock", and DLN-002, otherwise known as "Roll"-"

"Rock and _Roll_. _I _get it!" Andy chirped.

"Yes, yes, Dr. Light had a great love of music as well as robotics," Arthur sighed. "_Anyway_... While it's true that Rock and Roll were incredibly _life-like _in their interactions with the Humans and Faunus of Giga City, they did not possess _true _Artificial Intelligence like you'd associate with a fictional setting."

" . . . I do not understand," Alana sighed, being the least technologically-versed member of the group. Aside from a Scroll that she _only _used to make phone calls, there wasn't a _single _piece of technology in her room apart from the overhead light, and maybe some mechanical pencils. Heck, instead of a pencil sharpener, she used a small carving knife to sharpen them the old-fashioned way.

"To put it as simply as I possibly can, while Doctors Light, Wily, Cossack, and a few others had the _beginnings _of Artificial Intelligence two decades ago, Blue Box technology wasn't _nearly _as it was here and now. While it's true that Robot Masters, and even a few domestic models, can _act _happy, or angry, or sad, that's ultimately what it was in the end. An _act,_" Arthur explained. "Similar to a dating sim, early A.I. could only act and respond in very _fixed _manners whenever certain stimuli were directly applied to them, whether it's contextual or situational in nature. If you were to isolate a last-generational A.I. in an empty room without anything to interact with, they'd become largely emotionless. However, if someone were to _talk _to them, even if it were only through a speaker, certain keywords or even _inflections _of speech would meet the necessary criterion to trigger certain contextually-related subroutines in their programming, which, as I said before, allows them to _act _in certain ways that were cose approximations to emotion, but never _true _emotions."

"So in essence, they _think _they have emotions, but those emotions come from the _outside_, rather than what's within themselves?" Alana asked. "That ultimately, they are still soulless machines?"

"In the most literal of context, _yes_," Arthur said with a nod of his head. "Robot Masters and some domestic robots from back in the day are capable of _pantomiming _emotion, and some are even capable of making their own decisions as long as it's within the parameters of their base programming. However, _complete autonomy_, the ability to act however they wished regardless of the Three Laws of Robotics-"

"What were those again?" Andy asked.

"You just _love _to interrupt me, don't you?" Arthur asked before sighing deeply. "Law I: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Law II: A robot must obey orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Law III: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."

"So then..." Alana hummed. "A robot can't _hurt _a Human or allow them to come to harm as long as it's within their power to stop them, they have to _obey _orders given to them as long as it doesn't involve harming a Human or _allowing _them to come to harm, and a robot cannot self-terminate and must protect its own existence as long as doing so does not bring a human being to harm?"

"That's pretty much it, yes. The ways in which those could be worked-around are the debate of many futurist groups and science fiction novels, but even so, those three laws are ingrained into every robot rolled off the production line regardless of complexity due to international law," Arthur replied. "As I was saying _before_, _absolute _autonomy was completely banned in the field of robotics when Dr. Light's most-iconic creation, Rock, then known as "Mega Man", threatened to kill Dr. Wily, a _Human_."

"But wait, I thought Dr. Wily was the _bad guy_. And don't police robots kill people all the time?" Ruby asked.

"Okay first off, when it comes to police robots, _they _don't kill people by their own volition. They need to have that restriction on their programming briefly _rescinded, _by a _H__uman_, before they can kill anyone for any reason. And even then, that requires a very conscious _consultation_ from a Human who can be held _accountable _for the actions of said police robots," Arthur rebutted. "Second, the _true _villain of the Wily Wars has always been a subject of hot debate, even immediately after the Wily Wars ended once cooler heads were allowed to prevail."

"Hold up, didn't Dr. Wily try to take over the world with crazed robots? Seems pretty cut-and-dry to me; Dr. Wily's the bad guy, case open, case closed," Andy hummed.

"Somehow, I do not think it _is _that _cut-and-dry,_" Alana said crossing her arms.

"You're right in that it isn't," Arthur replied, holding up a hand to stop Ruby from speaking up. "Now, while it's true that on _many _occasions, Dr. Wily _did in fact_, turn a legion of specialized work robots against humanity, there's a pretty big detail that went overlooked until the _latter _stages of the Wily Wars that changes things from a black-and-white to an edgy _gray _perspective," he said lacing his fingers together and leaning on his hands as he looked down at the I.C. chips on his desk. "During the seventh campaign in the Wily Wars, after Mega Man had fought his way through Wily's lair and his machines, Dr. Wily willingly surrendered himself into Mega Man's custody. _However_, it was well-documented that Mega Man actually turned his weapons _against _Wily, despite reminders that robots are not _allowed _to hurt Humans; that it was the way they were programmed. What happened _next _was what shook the world of robotics to the core; Mega Man claimed to be _more _than a robot, and through some arbitrary value that _he _came up with, decided _who should live, _and _who should die._ He _independently _decided to hurt, to _kill_, a Human; which is basically _the _biggest violation of the First Law of Robotics. _This _brings up the question of Machine Ethics."

"_Machine _Ethics?" Ruby asked.

"What it means to program robots so that they behave in a way that we as humans deem moral," Alana stated, causing everyone to gawk at the technologically-illiterate blond. "I found it in this book," she said holding up a book that said **Machine Ethics** on the cover, featuring a robot with a halo giving a flower to a small child. "As robots become _smarter_, as they approach the threshold of making their own decisions like a living _person_, these issues become increasingly more important," she said flipping through the pages. "The Three Laws of Robotics, as discussed before, are the largest example of a robots' moral code. Robots behave in the way _we _program them, following a strict code based on the rules _we_ put in. The Three Laws of Robotics were originally created by science fiction writers as a way of exploring the possible loopholes that machines could find in their programming, setting up airtight rules where there wasn't any possibility of a machine misinterpeting what was meant at the time of the rules' inception. This of course is _essential _to avoid the prospect of a robot uprising."

"Oh! Like in Annihilator 2!" Ruby realized.

"Yes. Like that," Arthur replied. "Mega Man's conversation with Dr. Wily back then showed the world that he wasn't _programmed _in a way that forced him to adhere to this sort of code. Instead, he possessed the ability to decide who should live and who should die, based on some arbitrary criteria that could only be cooked up inside the head of a child-like robot that for all intents and purposes was still freshly _weaponized_. At first people thought he was just _broken_, that it was a malfunction that changed a 1 to a 0 somewhere in his coding. _However_, people who are looking at the Wily Wars from a more _neutral _standpoint, realized that this part of Mega Man's design was _intentional_; programmed into him by none other than Dr. Light, the so-called _saint _of then-modern robotics. Dr. Light didn't give just _Mega Man _this ability. He gave complete Autonomy to every Robot Master he ever made. While this might seem like an extreme claim when there's _clearly _a villain complex in the character of Dr. Wily, who felt scorned by the robotics community because he was always overshadowed by his partner slash rival, if you look at it _objectively_, a lot of it begins to make sense."

"Good, because I am really, _really _confused right now," Ruby hummed.

"Dr. Light wanted to create human-like robots with a sense of individuality, with _purpose_. A new level of artificial intelligence mimicking the human mind and free will. Recently-declassified documents dictated that the _first _Robot Master created was _actually_ Doctor Light Number Zero-Zero-_Z__ero_, cleverly referred to as Proto Man, the _prototype _to all Robot Masters and Combat Androids that would cone later on. Proto Man was the world's first _independent _robot, however, being independent, Proto Man escaped from under Dr. Light's thumb and went off on its own. Instead of _doing _anything about this, Dr. Light decided to _not _do anything about it, instead opting to do the exact same thing in Rock and Roll, otherwise known as DLN-001 and DLN-002. After that, he made an entire _legion _of specialized work robots, these ones largely thematic. Psychologists speculate that Dr. Wily saw _this _as an opportunity to get back at his rival. While he wasn't a skilled _programmer_ and couldn't create artificial intelligence on the same level, he _was _able to manipulate the robots and re-_code _them to do his bidding. Once the Wily Wars stated, with police and military completely incapable of matching the Robot Masters, Dr. Light converted Rock into a battle robot, and from _that _point, Dr. Light's responsibility for the events of the Wily Wars should become crystal clear," Arthur said before grabbing a bottle of water from the mini-fridge, downing it in a few gulps before continuing. "Dr. Light built robots with _flamethrowers_, _bomb-_launchers, and giant scissors bolted to their bodies, then took it upon himself to give these machines Autonomy. He _willfully _ignored conventions like the Laws of Robotics, and instead decided that those robots should have the equivalent of free will, despite neither he, nor the _world_, being equipped at-the-time for what that free will entailed. He allowed Proto Man, a deadly robot with no fail safes, no programming to say _"don't kill humans"_, to escape, and then did _nothing _about that, other than build _more _autonomous robots. And all of that carelessness, that _unwillingness _to think about the consequences of his actions, allowed Dr. Wily to swoop in and use these robots for his own purposes. Doctor Light for all of his brilliance, ultimately failed in the realm of Roboethics; the ethical consideration roboticists _must _keep in mind as they create newer, stronger, more-autonomous robots. He was willing to progress the field _forward _but was unwilling to take responsibility for everything which that meant. And _that _is why Dr. Light was _forced_ into retirement once the Wily Wars came to an end. Why he could _never _have a say in the world of robotics ever again, and why all of his robot creations with only a few _small _exceptions and a _lot _of concessions, were all put into cold storage _indefinitely_."

"Oh, you mean like that movie where criminals are _frozen _for the duration of their prison sentence?" Andy asked.

"In essence, yes," Arthur replied.

"Okay, well, that was really entertaining and all, but I think we're getting _reeeeeeally _off-track," the archer then stated.

"Hey, _you're _the one who _opened _this door by asking what the Three Laws of Robotics were," Arthur huffed. "I'm just trying to keep you all informed as to the ways that technology has been abused in the past. How it's being abused _now_," he said gesturing once more to the I.C. chips on his desk. "Cut Man and Air Man have once again been given the ability to completely _bypass _the Laws of Robotics, only, as compared to Dr. Wily who only wanted to prove to the world that he was the better scientist, whoever is manipulating them _now _intends to _maliciously _use them without any regard for human life, and if something isn't done, things could get ugly very fast. While Vale doesn't have the _largest _concentration of domestic and military robots compared to the other Kingdoms, that still doesn't change the fact that many places _use _domestic robot labor to handle or otherwise perform tasks too dangerous or too _tedious _for Humans to carry out."

"Well, I might not be an expert roboticist, but I'm _preeeeetty _sure this I.C. chip has been tampered with," Ruby said pointing to a spot on the ballistic glass framing said chip. Arthur, taking it in his hands and putting a Loupe to his eye, saw that part of the ballistic glass was oh-so-precisely cut away, and attached to the I.C. chip underneath was a _very _suspicious looking computer chip. The casing was all-red with a black queen-shaped chess piece decal slapped onto it, the thing practically _screaming _ominous with how much both the color and technology level clashed with the original old-school hardware.

"I am pretty sure we would have found this sooner if we did not spend so much time talking," Alana hummed.

"Well _obviously_," Andu shrugged, causing Arthur to glare at the scraggly teen before turning back to his work.

"Yes... yes, I'd say this is pretty suspicious," Arthur hummed as he analyzed the chip, his ears twitching every few seconds. "Well... It doesn't seem like there are any countermeasures to prevent _removal_, nor does there appear to be any tracking hardware in place," he said waving his Scroll over it, "so I suppose the first step would be isolating this tech from the rest. However..."

"However, _what_?" Ruby asked.

"This isn't something I can do right _now_. I don't have any of the right tools with me, and even if I _did _have them, this would still take time. Still, even without hooking it up to a monitor so I could see the programming, it's really obvious these Queen Pieces are responsible for Cut Man and Air Man's actions."

"Queen Pieces?" Ruby asked. "Oooh, because of the little decal on them," she realized.

"Yes," Arthur nodded. "_Clearly _this is non-standard hardware. _Definitely _out-of-place compared to the older tech it's attached to. However, other than the Queen emblem on top, I don't see any other identifying markers to denote where it was manufactured, _who _manufactured it, or even _when _other than speculating it had to have been within the last couple years."

"Well, if you don't have the tools to remove them, what do we do with them now?" Ruby asked.

"Normally I'd suggest turning these in to the authorities. However, whoever facilitated the transport of the Robot Masters from Atlas to Vale might have people on the inside, and they'd immediately become aware that we might be in-the-know about this. For the time being, I think we should just keep quiet about this, not tell anyone," Arthur said as he moved the two modified I.C. chips under a hidden bottom of his desk drawer. "I'll take these home the next chance I get and try to look into their programming, figure out what exactly it is these Queen Pieces _do_. However, the possibility exists that these Queen Pieces may've already been damaged during the fighting."

"Well... What if we got you _more_ tampered I.C. chips?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby, we ran into Cut Man by chance, and bumping into Air Man was _cooincidence _at best. Unless someone starts _actively _sending these things after us, I don't think we'll run into anymore," Arthur returned.

"Not unless we take the initiative and go after them ourselves!" Ruby realized. "I'll get my Team on the phone and-"

"No!" Arthur said snatching her Scroll out of her hand. "If we're going to investigate the rogue Robot Masters without anyone knowing, and that's a _very _big "_if_", we need to keep the circle of us in-the-know as small as possible. Now, I don't know all that much about Blake or Jack, but I know that your sister has a bit of a penchant for running her mouth, and Weiss' family has really close ties to the Atlas military. All it would take is one slip-up, and suddenly we're being abducted off the streets into the backs of black vans and never being heard from again."

"But I think my Team is going to start asking questions if they see me fishing around in their heads for big mother boards," Ruby pouted.

"Like I said before, running into one, let alone _two _Robot Masters, was nothing but chance and coincidence. Unless your Team is sent _after _a rogue Robot Master, or they're sent after _us_, the chances of us bumping into them are really slim," Arthur huffed. "If by some miracle you _do _wind up crossing paths with a rogue Robot Master, only fish around for its I.C. chip if there aren't any witnesses. Otherwise, don't chance it."

"I don't like lying to my Team like this," Ruby pouted.

"A lie of omission might still be a lie, but there's this little thing called _tact _that we need when poking behind the backs of criminal organizations," Arthur said as he handed Ruby back her Scroll. "Remember, it isn't _just _the Atlesian Council we're going around the back of. Whoever _made _these Queen Pieces, assuming it wasn't Roman Torchwick _himself_, will be keeping an eye on anyone poking around their stolen hardware. If they catch on that we're on to _them_, then there isn't anything stopping them from going after our families with how incompetent the police have shown themselves to be. Your dad, uncle, and sister might all be trained warriors, but my family doesn't have that kind of protection. They're _bakers_, and the only thing keeping them safe is they live on the good side of town the the police happen to like our baked goods. At least enough-so that they're willing to overlook the fact most of them are Faunus."

"I guess you're right," Ruby hummed. "But yeah, you make a good point. It's probably for the best that we keep quiet about this for now. And who knows, maybe the other Hunters _will _get involved and we won't _have _to fight any more rogue robots."

"Thank you for understanding," Arthur sighed.

"So... What now?" Ruby asked.

"I think we should just carry on as always," Alana said putting her hands on the girl's shoulders. "Ruby..." she said dropping the formalities. "Ozpin chose you, out of everyone else at Signal, to go to Beacon early for a _reason_. And if you let your grades slip because you're going on some kind of rogue robot hunt and you get kicked out for it, then all that effort Ozpin went through to bring you into Beacon early will go to waste."

"Right," Arthur said with a nod. "Don't go after the rogue Robot Masters because you _want _to. Go after them only if you _need _to, and if we're lucky, I might have something substantial to show to your headmaster by the time the Vytal Festival rolls around."

"Why _then_?" Ruby asked.

"Because we're going to be-"

"-cheering you on when your team competes," Alana said clamping an armored hand over the archer's mouth.

"Right! I'll do everyone at Signal proud and show my promotion _wasn't _a mistake!" Ruby said with a nod of her head.

After word got out she was admitted to Beacon two years early, her inbox had gotten a _ton _of hate mail from other Signal students who assumed _they _would be better choices for early admittance. The only reason she didn't tell Yang about this was because she didn't want her sister getting expelled from Beacon just because she wanted to go on a rampage and kick the ass of most-everyone at Signal. That and because their words were only that. _Words_. They didn't have any _real _power over her as long as she didn't let it, and she didn't want to give anyone _more _reason to think she was getting special treatment by getting her dad or her uncle involved.

"CRAP!"

"What is it?" Arthur asked at Ruby's outburst.

"I just realized we forgot to drop by your uncle's bakery!"

"Well, to be fair, things _did _kinda get out of hand," the Faunus replied. "But hey, the bakery won't be going out of business any time soon, _that _much I can guarantee, so we'll have plenty of chances to visit them before the Vytal Festival. Heck, even if the opportunity to see my family _doesn't _present itself, my uncle said he was going to open a branch on Beacon grounds _for _the Vytal Festival, so we'll be able to see them every day of it if you wanted to."

"Really? That'd be so cool," Ruby said with a smile.

"Yeah, it really would be," Arthur said with a smile. "Anyway… With how crazy things have been, you might wanna catch an airship to Beacon before the lines get shut down. So hurry along. Between the Queen Piece and the commission you made, I'll be pretty busy," he said holding up his notepad.

"Arthur… You really are the greatest," Ruby said with a smile, wrapping her arms around the Faunus' neck and giving him a squeeze before running off. "I'll see you guys later! Don't worry, we'll be at Beacon together before you know it!" she said as she ran down the hallway.

" . . . Is she out of earshot?" Alana asked out of several seconds.

"Yeah, she just left the building," Arthur replied as his ears twitched.

"Good," the young woman replied as she moved her hand.

"Pwah! What was that for?" the archer griped.

"You were about to speak of that which we were asked to keep secret," the knight answered curtly.

"And plus, we still aren't sure if we're going to go along with it," Arthur replied.

"Hey, don't play dumb with me bunny-boy. Everyone knows how huge a crush you and Little Red have on one another. You're just too skittish to follow through on it," the archer replied plainly. "If there's anyone who wants to go to Beacon two years early so you can see her in a schoolgirl uniform, it's you."

"Maybe that's true, but what if we aren't ready?" Arthur argued through his blush. "What if we go to the Vytal Festival representing our Combat School, and all we do is embarrass ourselves in front of the entire world. People from Combat Schools don't take part in the festival for a _reason_."

" . . . Ozpin let Ruby into Beacon two years early because he saw how much of a prodigy she was," Alana stated. "If what Jack Braxton said about Ozpin's concerns was genuine, and he truly put in the effort to research us for those dossiers, then he could very well be considering the same thing for us. Even if only by proximity."

"I suppose," Arthur hummed. It really _was _quite the shock for the three of them to be called by "Beacon's Bloody Badger" on private numbers they don't recall giving out, and then being told that if they did well at the Vytal Festival alongside him they'd be admitted early to Beacon. Having the security of a Kingdom on your shoulders, it was understandable for Ozpin to be paranoid, but to be so to the point that he'd recruit straight out of a Combat School so he'd have more boots on the ground? If their friend Ruby hadn't already gone early, they'd have thought the Faunus was trying to pull their leg.

"Maybe… Sure, the two of _you _might feel ready to take on the best of the youngest in the world, but me…? I'm afraid that if I embarrass myself out there, that I'll only drag Ruby down. It isn't in her to abandon a friend for the sake of her own reputation," he said as he stroked his rabbit ears.

"Arthur," Alana said once more dropping the formalities, placing her hands on his shoulders. "You are stronger than you realize. You aren't the same person being picked on in the school cafeteria. You've grown past yourself in so many ways, all so you can stand by Ruby's side. You don't want to be strong so you can _protect _her, you want to be strong so you can fight _alongside _her, as equals. And that says a great deal about the person you're going to become."

"Sheesh, get a room you two," Andy huffed, Alana's eyes narrowing as she grabbed her scabbard and jabbed the archer in the gut with the pommel of her greatsword.

"What I am trying to say is, do not sell yourself short. Just because you're a Rabbit Faunus doesn't mean you're meek, that's simply a part of your personality. And you're not some _animal _like most Humans think you are. You can grow _beyond _yourself, to be _better _than those who would talk ill about you. So don't question your own worth. We're going to compete in the Vytal Festival alongside Sir Braxton, and we're going to all reunite with Ruby in Beacon's halls."

" . . . Thank you. I really needed the pep talk," Arthur said with a nod. "Alright! I'm pumped up! Time to put my nose to the grindstone and get to work!" he said with a smile as he pulled out some drafting paper and began to get to work.

"I'm glad to hear it," Alana said with a smile, dragging Andy out of the room by his ankle and leaving the Faunus to his work.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"HEY GUYYYYYYS!" Ruby cheered as she ran towards Yang and Jack once she got back to Beacon. "You'll never believe what Team _Ray _did today!"

"You... fought crazy robots?" Yang asked.

" . . . How did you know that?" Ruby questioned.

"You've got a couple spots of hydraulic fluid on your skirt," Jack pointed out.

"Ah! Oh man! That stuff's _never _gonna come out!" Ruby whined as she wet her thumb and tried to get the stuff out. Completely contradictory to her words.

"Well, Yang and I are just glad you're okay," Jack replied. "Did you have a nice day out?"

"Sure did!" Ruby said with a beaming smile. "What about you guys? Did you do anything interesting today?"

"Meh, we mostly sat around talking," Yang shrugged. "And yelling at each other," she admitted.

"If we were wearing state-of-the-art bio-mechanical body armor designed to deflect bullets and absorb explosions, and there was no audio, it'd just look like a bunch of helmets bobbing up and down," Jack added.

"That sounds like it would look ridiculous," Ruby hummed contemplatively. "Anyway... I just hope we can have two more do-nothing days of peace and quiet before Sports Day. And that no one on our team gets expelled because of a bad performance on Friday."

"As long as no-one pulls a muscle, I think we'll be fine," Yang hummed as she grabbed the handles of Jack's chair.

"All we really _need _to do is some light stretching and we should be golden," Jack commented, the trio descending into nonsensical small-talk along that tangent as they made their way to Beacon's interior.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**Arthur Asimov, Alana Lee Miller, and Andrew "Andy" D. Argent are original characters made for use in this story as "the gang back at Signal" that Ruby references very early in the story/canon, but are never mentioned beyond that point. Vincent the "shopkeep" is _also _and original character made by me.  
**

**The hints about the Mega Man crossover were small and scattered, but still there, and I hope I represented them as then-bleeding-edge Combat Androids well in the world of Remnant.**

**Anyway, at more than 25,000 words, here's hoping I gave you enough to work with that I'll get lots of Reviews. See you next time!**

**P.S.  
Even if Reviews are just to point out inconsistencies in the narrative, that's fine too. At more than 25,000 words, re-checking it again and the again can get monotonous to the point that things begin to slip through the cracks. So... yeah... Thanks in advance!**


	36. Bitter Work

'_Goddess it feels good to be on my feet again. Even if I can't _feel _them technically,' _Jack thought to himself as he walked Beacon's grounds in the early morning.

Almost the _entirety _of Coco's neurotoxin had been flushed from his systems the previous night, with only trace amounts remaining to slow him down. There was still a bit of numbness throughout, but not enough that it inhibited his _movement _any, so despite a few difficulties getting oriented right off the bat, he was able to tip-toe his way into the closet, grab his uniform, and sneak out without rousing any of Team RWBBY from their slumber.

Currently _clad _in said uniform, Jack had forgone the tie and vest entirely, top button of the dress shirt still undone, going for something far more casual, but more importantly, _flexible_. It still felt really weird to be walking around while still toxified, like he were marching through a pool filled with syrup, but he'd powered through _lethal _stuff before with only semi-permanent nerve damage, so brushing off a neurotoxin was much easier in comparison.

'_Why the hell do they even make us _wear _vests?' _Jack questioned as he adjusted Yang's infinity scarf around his neck, a welcome alternative to the neck-strangler he would've worn before. _'I mean, what is Ozpin prepping us for? To be Hunters, or waiters in a five-star restaurant?' _he added before shrugging off that line of thought entirely.

The Beacon grounds were eerily quiet in the morning, as though on that day _everyone _had decided to sleep in. The only sounds being made were the wind in the leaves, the birds leaving their roosts, and the little critters on the ground. The air was still a little damp, an abundance of dew on the ground from the night's condensation, offering the melting pot of a school a rare moment of tranquility. A rarity when you had people from every corner of the world training in all mainstream occupations in the same campus with live _munitions _going off every five minutes.

What? Did you think a school as expansive as Beacon could get by teaching one thing and one thing only? Where you were just as likely to die going out on a class assignment as you were running into traffic on the highway?

'_I wonder if I could _arrange _that somehow,' _Jack thought as he contemplated Jaune's next "training session".

Looking up from his musings, he noticed a rather familiar place he hadn't been to in weeks; the gazebo Ruby had found him in on that rainy day when he'd been at his lowest point. In _recent _memory at least. Thinking back on it, Ruby holding her hand out to him at that moment, offering him aid the way she had when she had no _obligation _to, was probably the nicest _anyone _at Beacon had been to him since he'd been assigned to Team DIRJ.

'_The _teachers _certainly didn't care to do anything about it,' _Jack huffed as he moved to pass the wooden structure entirely. However, he paused mid-step when movement caught his eye.

Sitting across from the gazebo's entrance was Glynda Goodwitch, prim-and-proper as ever, with a thermos of coffee at her side as she watched the rising sun in the distance.

Seeing her from the left, with the morning sun's rays hitting her _juuust _the right way prompted the recollection of certain… _topics_, they had discussed in the elevator before and after Ozpin sprung the whole Project _Prodigy _thing on him.

He was completely _truthful _in his flirtations of course, but only being half-serious because he figured she was disciplined enough to shoot him down purely on principle. So color him surprised when he discovered that her love life was so _abysmal_, that a quote-unquote "strapping young man" showing that sort of legitimate interest in her made her even _contemplate _that sort of action.

Not that that sort of thing was _impossible _mind you; women had their needs too, not just men. And at least in _their _case it was more of a biological compulsion (in most cases) whereas men tended to seek out sexual partners even near the middle of their lives for matters purely personal or self-indulgent. It was why the term "cougar" was more-widely recognized than whatever was used for a man preying on younger girls. Outside of "lecher" at least.

Personally, Jack didn't find older women (within certain margins) unattractive. If anything, older women were _just as _attractive to him as women his own age or even _slightly _above that bracket. Not because of some arbitrary value like "experience", but because of their _confidence _and how they carried themselves, which was one of the things that lit a _fire _in his heart and-

'_Where am I going with this?' _Jack wondered as he came to a stop. _'Oh. Right. Glynda. I should probably say "Hi" to her. Let her know I'm alright after all the craziness that happened. I should probably apologize for anything I did too,' _he contemplated as he approached her from behind, having walked right past her while deep in thought.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

It was the early morning. The sun was slowly rising, there was dew on the grass, the creatures in the trees were beginning to stir, and a rare moment of tranquility was reigning across Beacon. Being a teacher, you'd see the best _and _the worst that a school had to offer, and in a school full of super-powered teenagers that'd be just as home in a comic book as they were in real life, things tended to get a little… crazy.

And that was putting it _mildly._

Live munitions going off at all times of the day. Two students fighting to the death over some perceived slight; or a girl. A random Grimm on the loose because some _illiterate _doesn't know how to latch a fucking cage. The list of all the things Glynda had seen (and more often than not _cleaned up_) in her tenure as a teacher went on and on and _on_, and it probably wasn't going to get any shorter with all the eccentric Hunters and the like only _now _deciding to become instructors. The lot of them opting to become teachers _now _may not've been as-eccentric as the likes of Peter Port or Bartholomew Oobleck, but the problem was that the two of them were a very _high _milestone for eccentric, so even if you were "less eccentric", that was still _pretty damn eccentric_.

Personally, she blamed Ozpin for this.

While it was true that Ruby Rose had displayed prodigal skills with a scythe, and the bulk of her immediate family were all strong hunters in their own right, none of that changed the fact that Ruby had yet to complete her _basic _education at Signal Academy before being admitted early to Beacon. Sure, the girl could hold her own in the ring against those two to three years her senior, but the lack of responsibility that a full, and more importantly, _complete _education provided, made itself immediately apparent in her schoolwork.

Her grades were within acceptable parameters, that much was true. However, the fact still remained that early on she lacked the _discipline _of someone who had actually _completed _their basic Combat School education. She made a point to keep an eye on all the freshmen early on, if only to designate anyone who would become _problem children _down the road. So suffice it to say, doodling during lectures, drawing pupils on your eyelids to sleep in class, or stuffing oneself with nothing but junk food when the kitchen staff worked very hard to provide a nutritious and wholesome dining experience, didn't necessarily paint the youngest freshman in the best light.

So… When someone in Ozpin's position does something self-indulgent like _that_, it tends to give others the idea that they _too _can act irresponsibly and self-indulgent, given the person at the top of the pyramid did as well. The new batch of teachers for the upcoming semester had bypassed a _lot _of red tape to take to their new positions upon verbal request, and most of them hadn't _taught _anything before, or received even the slightest iota of a formal education on _how _to teach. So one could understand the woman's reservations by letting yet _another _eccentric batch of teachers take to the front lines as it were.

At the very least, both herself and Professor Peach had been there to balance out the more-eccentric tendencies of Port and Oobleck. But with the new batch of teachers lined up to take over the Freshman's education… she worried for the kind of damage their eccentricities could cause her students in the long run. Just because she wasn't _personally _teaching any of them during the next couple of months, didn't mean she didn't still consider them her students.

"Morning, Glynda. How's the day treating you?" a familiar voiced asked as the grass at her back crunched underfoot.

"Jack?" Glynda asked as she looked over her shoulder.

"The one and only," Jack shrugged as he vaulted over the railing and took a seat to her left. "_Hopefully,_" he muttered to himself as he scratched his face. _"Goddess I _hope _I'm the only me there is. I don't think Remnant could handle _two _of me," _he muttered off in a tangent.

"I'm surprised to see you up so soon," Glynda replied.

"I'm not the sort that likes to stay down for long," Jack shrugged.

"You're not the sort that's like anyone _else _either," the blond replied.

"That's true. That's true," Jack retorted. "I see you're out for a morning walk?"

"I needed some peace and quiet before I went back to grading and helping the other teachers get ready," Glynda said taking a sip from her thermos. "Coffee?"

"No thank you. We Ratel tend to have a bit of a sweet tooth. Coffee's not really my thing."

"Ratel?" Glynda asked with a quirked brow.

"Another name for honey badger. _Shorter_," Jack elaborated. "Geez, and I thought you were the _smart one_," he said as he playfully rolled his eyes.

"I am. This is just the first time I've heard _that _vernacular," the teacher replied.

"Well, it _is _an old word, so you not knowing it is understandable," Jack shrugged.

"Hm. I guess Bart would sooner know is origins than I would," Glynda returned. "How are you feeling?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're up and walking again, which is good for your team, but you were hit with enough neurotoxin to knock out a full-grown elephant. Just because you _can _walk, does that mean you _should_."

"I've been hit with worse poisons than this. Besides, I've still got the rest of today and tomorrow as down-time to shake off all the numbness," Jack shrugged. "Although… I suppose you weren't asking about the _poison _were you?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Glynda deflected.

"Glynda, I may've been _out of it _the other day, but I'm not completely oblivious," Jack deadpanned. Looking around to make sure no-one was listening, he then turned his attention back to the teacher once he was satisfied no-one was within earshot. "Listen, I more or less _know _what went down the other day. I have the metaphorical pudding as proof," he said pulling the dazzling blue lapis out of his pocket and holding it up to her face. "You don't have to walk on eggshells around me. I know what happened, and I'm sorry."

"Jack…"

"But in retrospect, if you guys didn't keep getting in my way, none of you would've gotten hurt."

" . . . Excuse me?" Glynda asked in confusion, feeling the tone shift in a completely different direction.

"What, you think I'm apologizing for those assholes I killed? Because I _won't_," Jack returned as he furrowed his brow. "In case you don't remember, those rimjobs _murdered _those girls. And in some cases that isn't _all _that was done to them," he growled as his eyes flickered to crimson. "The police, the Council, the Hunters… They all _failed _those girls. _Completely. _So it was up to me to even things out. Goddess above knows the _Humans _weren't going to do anything about it. Council probably covered it up because mass murderings so close to the Vytal Festival would be _bad for business,_" he snarled. "So no, I'm not going to _apologize_ for what I did. Because in the real world, it's not _always _about doing the right thing. It's all about doing _things _the right way. In this case, the right way just so happened to be a one-sided slaughter against guys that had it coming. Tit for tat. Tooth for a tooth. An eye for an eye."

"But-"

"And don't try and say those Humans didn't deserve what they got, because those girls' memories, or at least their _final _memories… They're all. Right. Here," he said glowering at her as he tapped his right temple, soothing jade eyes blinking to baleful crimson. "I know-_saw_ what they did. From a ring-side seat. So me doing to those assholes what I did… that was letting them off _easy_. And if another Ruby of Grief appears in town and I need to go on a killing spree again to get rid of it…" he said as a red miasma began to rise off of him. **"Get out of the damn way…" **he said with a hateful red-eyed glare before clapping his hands together, adopting a docile smile with tilted head and closed eyes, the murderous aura spilling out of him dissipating entirely. "So. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" he asked cheerfully.

"Yes… If ever another Ruby of Grief appears like it did… We'll find another way to resolve it. Simply running around and _killing _people, no matter what they're guilty of, _isn't_ the answer," Glynda said sternly, not about to sit back and take all Jack was saying without a grain of salt. "Ozpin shouldn't have given your Team a mission with so many unknowns in the _first _place."

"Pheh. Good luck with _that_," Jack snickered, remembering that any and all previous attempts to "destroy" the Crimson Orb had failed spectacularly. "Maybe after half the town are killed off by Grimm, you'll admit that my way was the right way. I mean, what's the lives of a few _scumbags _compared to a whole city," Jack shrugged as he got up. "Don't mistake me, Glynda. I'm not one of the good guys. I just don't happen to be one of the bad guys either," he said as he walked off.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"You _lost _him?" Weiss demanded angrily.

"Bull_shit _I lost him! _All _of us were in the room last night when we went to sleep, and when I woke up, he! Wasn't! There!" Yang growled angrily, being the first one Weiss blamed for the empty bed and folded-up wheelchair by the Faunus' bedside.

"Guys." _*Yaaawn* _"Please don't fight. It's early," Ruby yawned.

"Jack probably flushed enough of the neurotoxin out of his system to get up and go for a walk," Blake said looking up from her book. _'At least they're not yelling at _me _this time,' _she thought on the side.

"Well, the guy _is _a Honey Badger Faunus. Poison resistance _is _their bread and butter after all," Yang chuckled as she ran her fingers through her morning hair.

"Maybe, but _should _he be walking around so soon?" Weiss asked as she nervously bit at her right thumbnail, crossing her other arm across her stomach.

"He doesn't seem like the type to stay down for long. _In more ways than _one" the blond purred batting a cat paw at the heiress, causing her to flush at the innuendo.

"Yang. Please don't sexually harass your teammates so early in the morning," Jack said as he came in.

"Jack!" Weiss and Yang yelped.

"That's my name. Don't wear it out," Jack grumbled to himself.

"Why are you dressed in your uniform?" Ruby asked.

"I wanted to try something different with it. In case a fight broke out," Jack shrugged as he tugged the cuffs of his suit. "I'm also not a big fan of neckties," he said adjusting Yang's scarf.

"Do they squeeze your neck the wrong way?" Blake asked.

"No. They break too easily when I'm trying to strangle someone."

"The scary part is, I can't tell if you're joking or not," the closet cat-girl sighed. Off in some corner of her mind she was _imagining _Jack strangulating a guy with only a silk necktie.

"I laughed when the innkeeper said he found five corpses."

"That answers even _fewer _questions," Blake shuddered, her bow flattening against her head as she wondered where the _rest _of said corpses could be. Weiss on the other hand had a "WTF!" look on her face as she tried to process what would even _possess _Jack to say something like that.

" . . . Where'd you hide the _rest _of the corpses?"

"RUBY!" Weiss squawked.

"What? It was a legitimate question," the youngest shrugged. "Also, they _were _all bad people, right?"

"To varying degrees, _yes_," Jack nodded. "I don't kill people without good reason, so you don't have to worry about me going on a killing spree and mauling those that don't deserve it."

"Well… I feel a _little _better at least," the heiress shrugged, hoping that the first time Team RWBBY went outside of Vale to work, Jack wouldn't have some kind of _corpse party _while they weren't looking.

"Weiss, I'm not going to have a _corpse party _while Team Ruby isn't around the first time we go outside of Vale to work."

"How do you even know what I'm thinking!?" the heiress squealed.

"You just had that kind of look on your face."

"WHAT KIND OF LOOK IS _THAT_?!"

"The kind of look that says, _'I sure hope that the first time Team Ruby goes outside of Vale to work, that Jack doesn't have some kind of _corpse party _when we aren't looking'._"

"That… answers… _none _of my questions!"

"You should probably get used to it," Blake said looking up from her book.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Ruby asked.

"You're Team Leader. Shouldn't that be _your _call?" Weiss asked.

"Maybe, but we don't have anything to _do _today," Ruby shrugged. "Do any of _you _guys want to do something?"

"I actually planned on running Jaune through some drills before our do-nothing day tomorrow," Jack shrugged as he grabbed some work-out clothes from under his bed and went out of sight to change.

"Drills? Like what?" Ruby asked.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright, Jaune, listen up. We're going to get one last batch of training in before the Hunters-in-Training Sports Day the day after tomorrow. Have you been doing your _homework_?" Jack asked Jaune an hour later after breakfast, the Faunus clad in a green tank top that hugged his frame, black cargo shorts, and his ankle-hugging sandals.

"Y-Yeah," Jaune replied, clad in a white shirt with the yellow Arc family symbol across his chest, black shorts, and white sneakers.

"Youuuu sound like you _hesitated _there for a second."

"R-Really? I didn't notice," Jaune chuckled.

" . . . Whatever," the Faunus sighed. If Jaune wanted to slack off, the only one that'd be hurting was _himself_. _'I honestly couldn't _care _less,' _Jack thought. "Anyway, based on your previous shows of mental _ineptitude_, I'm going to spell this out for you. _This_," he said gesturing to the ground in front of them, "is an open soccer field."

"I can _see_ that," Jaune deadpanned. Just because he used fake transcripts to get into Beacon didn't mean he was an _idiot_.

Okay, so maybe he was an idiot for _doing _that, but still… He was smart enough to _find _the guy. That had to count for _something_! Right?

"Says the dumbass that didn't even know what _Aura _was," Jack deadpanned in turn, causing Jaune to shrink in on himself. "Anyway, today, I'm going to teach you how to _storm _a place."

"Um… Storm?"

"To move angrily or forcefully in a specified direction, or for a group of soldiers to suddenly attack and capture a building or other specified location by means of force," Jack explained. "_Your _goal is to get the other side of the field while still carrying a pulse."

"Really? Well _that _doesn't seem to har-DOH!" the blond cursed as a streak of yellow suddenly plowed into his gut with the force of a major league softball. Falling to his knees and clutching his stomach, he saw a steaming tennis ball rolling to a stop right in front of him. "What… the… fuck…?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention that I conscripted the Tennis Club to help in this little endeavor?" Jack asked as he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. Looking up, Jaune saw around a dozen young women with varying hair colors wearing white tank tops, skirts, sneakers, and visors, buckets of tennis balls at their feet and rackets in their hands. "It's _your _job to get to the other side with your-" _*Snort* _"_-dignity _intact, and it's _their _job to hit the moving target I've so graciously provided for them to practice on."

"Wh-What does this have to do with _storming _a place?" Jaune groaned as he got up to his feet.

"What, you think you'll be able to approach an enemy encampment without any retaliation? They aren't going to lie down for you out of pity like you want _Weiss _to on prom night."

"Dude…" Jaune growled angrily. "Low blow, dude, low bl-OHOH!" he said before getting struck with another tennis ball, this one drilling into his forehead and sending him sprawling head over heels.

"You might wanna get the lead out, otherwise you're gonna be fucking _hosed _at Sports Day," Jack said jabbing a thumb to the open field, Jaune grumbling as he rose to his feet and started running. A few meters in and a horizontal deluge of tennis balls began to pelt him at breakneck speeds, the blond sent tumbling backwards. "Why do these _hurt _so much?!"

"Most of the students here at Beacon have Aura, even if it isn't a requirement of their aspired occupation. And it just so happens that in recent years, there's been a high demand for Aura-powered athletes to make the games more-interesting and less-boring," Jack answered as Jaune rolled away from the next volley, six-inch trenches dug into the ground where he was moments before. "Since people began to realize the _utility _of having an Aura, its usage outside combat-related occupations has only _grown _in recent years, and even if it's only a once-off ability for those without training, it still doesn't change the fact that auric sportsmanship is steadily rising in popularity."

"Question: Why are _we _here for this? Do you want us to practice our storming maneuvers too?" Ruby questioned, standing behind Jack alongside the rest of Team RWBBY and JNPR, each of them clad in loose-fitting workout clothes in their respective color schemes.

"No-no, you guys wouldn't make for very good targets," Jack countered. "Well, I mean some of you would get _hit _more than others, but the point is they need something to move in an _unpredictable _manner, and not something that'd dodge most-anything sent their way on account of your skill-levels."

"And who exactly would get hit _more than others_?" Weiss asked with her hands on her hips. A finger pointed at her with a flat expression on the owner's face, the heiress puffed out her cheeks in rage. "Hey!"

"Weiss, you're really graceful and all, but against speeding projectiles you _can't _see coming from a mile away, your evasionary skills… leave something to be desired."

"I don't _need _to see the tennis balls coming from a mile away. Just the length of a _soccer field_," the heiress argued.

"I don't mean a _literal _mile away," Jack sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look, once Jaune finishes up here, then we can all do some light training for Sports Day. Have you all been doing your stretches? Pulling a muscle will _seriously _hurt your athletic capabilities."

"I've already finished," Pyrrha replied. Not in a teachers' pet kinda way, but just in a really honest and _sincere _kinda way.

"Good for you. Have a cookie," Jack said pulling out a bag of chocolate chip cookies and tossing one the red-head's way, only for _another _red blur to swoop in front of her and snatch it out of mid-air. "No! Bad Ruby! Bad girl! Bad!" the Faunus chided like one would their pet as the girl gobbled up her pilfered confectionery treat.

"You probably should've known better by now," Yang chuckled with a shake of her head, while off to the side Pyrrha wilted a little. It wasn't like she was _petty _or anything, it's just she was a little bummed out after Jack's gracious gesture had been intercepted like that.

"Don't worry, Pumpkin Pete Girl, I'll give you another one as soon as Ruby's sufficiently distracted," Jack said as Jaune ran forward, only to get pelted in the face by balls. Lots and lots of balls. "Also, ignore that."

"I'm not sure you're being very _fair _to him," the red-heat countered.

"Has _he _been very _fair_?" Jack asked, putting emphasis on his words so the rest of RWBBY and JNPR wouldn't catch his double-meaning.

" . . . _No_," Pyrrha conceded. Even now, Jack's words of Jaune _stealing _someone's spot at Beacon, intentionally-done or not, still rung strong in her ears.

"Right answer," Jack said with a nod. "Ruby, what is that?" he suddenly pointed off to the side, Ruby looking off into the distance while Jack withdrew another cookie from his bag and chucked it at Pyrrha like a shuriken, the chocolatey treat lodging itself between her teeth.

" . . . Nice," Ren said with a soft smile as he clapped his hands while Pyrrha just stood there with a shocked expression on her face.

"Do it again! Do it again!" Nora chanted as she pumped her fist, Pyrrha blinking a couple times before she began eating her treat.

"_Heeeeeey_," Ruby pouted. "You lied to me," she said lowly.

"And you stole Pyrrha's cookie. Now we're even," Jack chided.

" . . . _Touché,_" the girl said as she drummed her fingers together, Jaune sliding across the ground on his back towards them, a tennis ball lodged in his mouth.

'_Well that's all kinds of pathetic,' _Jack sighed as the blond wearily forced himself up and ran head-first into the lion's den. Or the tennis court. Or the _soccer field_. Whatever. "Hey Jaune, here's a freebie," the Faunus said as he sucked in air. "DOOOOOOOOOOOOODGE!" he bellowed, causing a flare of pain to explode across Jaune's body as he had an episodic flashback.

The next deluge of tennis balls heading his way, the blond began to duck and weave around the shots as the traumatic memory of Jack punching him came to the forefront of his mind. Half missed, some scored direct hits while others grazed his clothes, ripping them away and causing friction burns. By the time Jaune made it to the other side of the field, half his casual clothes were burned away and he was covered in bruises, a third of his larger-than-average reserves depleted from that harrowing ordeal.

"Well waddya know, you're still alive," Jack chuckled as he made his way over. "Great job ladies! I'm looking forward to your next game," he said waving the girls goodbye, who gathered up their tennis balls and were out of the battle-scarred field in a matter of minutes. "Alright, that's enough of a warmup. Time for the _fun _stuff."

" . . . _Warmup_?" the blond asked nervously.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright, blondie. Next on the agenda is dodge ball," Jack said after leading Jaune into the gym. Ordinary-enough, regulation basketball court in the middle, retractable bleachers, retractable basketball goals, the works. Beacon had more than one of these, of course.

"Oh… Well, _that _doesn't seem so har-" _***Clonk* **_"-DOW!"

"Today, you're going to learn the five Ds of dodge ball. Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and _Dodge_," he said counting off on his fingers. "If you master the five Ds, no amount of balls on Remnant can hit you."

"You said dodge twi-" _***Clonk* **_"-COW!"

"If you can dodge a _wrench_, you can dodge a ball," Jack said reaching into the satchel at his side, another silver wrench pulled out before he chucked it at the blond, his Aura taking repeated hits from the blows. Had _Jack _put his Aura into the wrenches, half of the blond's bones would've been broken.

A common misconception about Aura was that it was an "absolute defense" against anything and everything. That was not the case. Grimm could not use Aura, so that was a major advantage Humans and Faunus had over them. However, when Humans and Faunus were subject to OTHER Aura attacks, it _was in fact_, possible to bring harm to another person when their Aura was up and not fully depleted. Similar to how no material is unbreakable when pounded against itself, it was possible for one Aura-powered attack to give bruises to an Aura-clad person, and vice versa. If you use Aura all over your body like an "over shield", the defense is weak, but omni-directional; however, if you focused it more towards a single point, the "density" of the Aura increased and you received less damage underneath in exchange for that Aura.

So in essence, it was a tradeoff between how much _you _were willing to get hurt, and how much Aura you wanted to hold onto to use at a later time.

"Guh… What next…? You gonna make me dodge traffic in the freeway _too_?" he groaned as he got up.

"It was actually going to be _sharks_, but the traffic one is a GREAT idea! Thanks!" Jack said with a smile as he chucked another wrench, which struck the blond right in the face. Aura or not, that was definitely going to bruise.

"Where'd you even _get _those fucking things!?" Jaune demanded as he held his face. Jack had like _twenty _of those things sticking out of the satchel at his side.

"You would not _believe _how bad some of the pipes can get in a school filled with super-powered teenagers," Jack answered as he tossed another wrench in his hand. "Now… DOOOOOOOOOOOOODGE!" he roared as he let another fly.

_***CLONK* **_"OW!"

"So… Are _we _going to train, or not?" Ruby asked.

"How did you even get Jaune to _agree _to this sort of torment?" Weiss questioned. Sure, the Arc boy tormented her to no end with his constant asking her out with cheesy pick-up lines and ogling her when he though she wouldn't notice, but despite all that, she still considered what was being done to him cruel and inhumane.

Then she remembered _who _was throwing the wrenches, and realized what he was doing to Jaune, had probably been done once or twice to him in the past. Or _worse_. And _more_!

"Yes, Jaune, how _did _I get you to agree to doing whatever I say under the pretense of training?" Jack asked with a sly grin.

"_I… whrwhrwhr."_

"I'm sorry, what was that? All I got was mumbling."

"I… asked for it," Jaune grumbled.

"And why did you ask for it?"

"Because… the way I am now… I'm a liability to my team and everyone I'm tasked with protecting," he admitted.

"How can you be a liability? You took down an Ursa Major-"

"Minor," Jack corrected.

"-_by _yourself," Ruby went on to say.

"To be fair… I may've held his hand a little," Pyrrha admitted. Looking at it objectively, giving Jaune credit when she'd done half the work for him, would only set him up for failure down the line if the boy believed it was by his merit _alone_.

"Huh… I _thought _I felt something pulling on my shield back then," Jaune sighed dejectedly.

"Well waddya know. You _can _rub more than two brain cells together," Jack chuckled.

"_Shut up, you dumb beaver."_

"What was that?!"

"_Nothiiing!_" Jaune squealed in a higher octave. Though it may've also had to do with the wrench that struck Jaune firmly in his Aura-clad genitals when he'd pissed his coach slash torturer off.

"So… seeing as how you're running empty, can we go now?" Ruby asked, pointing out that Jack's satchel was now empty of wrenches.

"Sure, let me just center myself first. Peace…," Jack said as he inhaled deeply through his nose, raising his palms upward. "And tranquility…" he exhaled, pushing his palms down and centering himself.

_***CLONK* **_"OW!"

"Okay, we can go," Jack finished. "Good job, Nora. Have a cookie."

"Yaaay!" the orange-haired girl cheered, the Faunus patting her on the head after tossing a cookie into her waiting mouth.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"So… Where are we off to next?" Ruby asked a few minutes later, Jack leading Jaune somewhere, the blond dragging his feet behind him.

"The abandoned sandlot on the west side of campus," Jack answered. "I thought I'd share some philosophy with you, something they don't teach in school that'll help you out the rest of your lives."

"Neat!" Nora chirped. "I'm a girl whose all _about _philosophy!"

"Sure you are," Blake hummed.

"_Excuse me, Jack?" _Pyrrha asked as she ran up alongside him.

"_What is it?"_ Jack asked as the girl tugged at his sleeve.

"_Could I… have a word with you?" _the red-head asked nervously. _"In _private_?"_

" . . . " Jack gave the girl a contemplative look before sighing. "Hey guys, go on ahead to the sandlot without me. Big Red and I need to have a word," he said jabbing a thumb at Pyrrha, the girl squirming as everyone's attention landed solely on her.

Yang gave the red-head a flat look for several seconds before turning to Jack. " . . . How will we know when we get there?"

"It'll be the place that looks like an unused baseball diamond with its back to the Emerald Forest. Go straight that way and hang a right when you get to the wall. If you get to the volleyball court you've gone too far," Jack answered before picking up Jaune by the back of his collar. "Make sure the big-shot _hero_ gets there in one piece," he said sarcastically as he shoved the blond the other blond's way, Yang throwing the hapless teen over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Oh _come _on…" Jaune grumbled as how effortlessly Yang man-handled him.

"Sure thing. We'll be waiting," Yang said giving the Faunus a thumbs-up as the others went on ahead to the abandoned sandlot. _"Hey," _the blond said as she tugged on Pyrrha's shoulder and brought her in close.

"_Y-Yes?" _Pyrrha replied nervously.

"_If you even _think _about hurting him while I'm not around, I'll break your legs," _the blond threatened. _"Jack already proved the Invincible Girl can bleed. I wonder if she can feel _fear _too," _she said ominously before walking off.

"W-What was _that _about?" Pyrrha asked nervously as she turned to Jack, completely unused to being _threatened _like that.

"Yang's gotten a little protective of me as of late. It feels pretty nice to have someone care that much, actually," Jack said with a smile as he scratched the back of his head. "Now, as for why you've held me back… Are you going to confess some form of deep emotional attachment to me?"

"N-No, nothing like that," Pyrrha said waving her hands.

"Then you have my undivided attention," the Faunus returned, crossing his arms.

"Fine, then I'm just going to come out and say it," Pyrrha said leveling the meanest glare she could at him. "Jack Braxton, what is your _problem_?"

" . . . You'll have to be a bit more specific," the Faunus retorted to the broad-natured question.

"With _Jaune_," the red-head reiterated with a cross look. "What is your problem with _Jaune_?"

"You mean _other _than the fraud, the misrepresentation, and the potential-entrapment that Weiss might find herself in if by _some _miracle Jaune convinced her to marry him only for her to later find out he's a big fat phony?" Jack listed it off like it came naturally. "Lots of little things, why?"

"It's just… Jaune asked you to train him, came to you to help him become something better than himself, but all you've been doing is running him into the ground or using him as your own personal punching bag for your own _entertainment_."

" . . . I'm not _apologizing_," Jack said after several seconds.

"But-"

"Not finished yet," Jack interrupted as he pinched her lips shut. "You want to know _why_ I'm running him into the ground like I am?" Pyrrha nodded her head, albeit reluctantly. "It's because Jaune, having _never _gone into any form of combat schooling before coming to Beacon, is _literally _four years behind the rest of us. Jaune will never-"

"But-" she said freeing her lips.

"_Never," _Jack once again cut her off, "be able to close that gap he has with his peers, because _they _won't sit and wait four years for him to play catch-up _either_. And you know the _bad guys _will only keep getting stronger too," he said with a flat expression. "That's why, instead of wasting my time training someone to fight who didn't even have the courtesy to show up at the "_starting line" _on time," he said making air quotes, "I'm going to teach him how to _live through _everything that's going to be thrown his way in the future. He gets punched in the face? I'll teach him to roll with the punches. He gets stabbed through the belly with a sword? I'll teach him the best way to put pressure on the wound so he doesn't bleed-out right away. He gets thrown over the side of a cliff? I'll teach him how to maximize his chances of survival instead of turning into an ugly-colored stain on the ground."

"So you _really _think Jaune is a lost cause as a fighter, and all he'll ever be is a… a _meat shield_?!" Pyrrha asked angrily.

"Your words, not _mine_, but yes," Jack nodded. "Like I said before, he is _literally _four years behind the curve, and _again_, we're not going to sit back for four years with our thumbs up our asses while we wait for him to mosey on up to the starting line. If you want him to be a better fighter, then _you _be his teacher. _You _teach him how to fight," he said jabbing her with his finger. "You're lucky I'm wasting the time I am _now _on him, because he isn't getting a second longer. Not when I have _actual _talent to help cultivate, like the rest of my new Team," he said smiling fondly before turning back to Pyrrha with a sour look. "So before you bitch and complain at me about _my_ methods, just remember _who _those methods are being used _on_, and just how _late-to-the-game_ that person really is. I am _well _within my rights to treat him that way, especially since I'm keeping my mouth shut about his dirty-ass laundry."

" . . . Dammit," Pyrrha swore. "You're right... As usual," she said as her shoulders sagged.

"Of _course _I'm right," Jack said patting her on the head like a child. "Like I said before, I've traveled the world, and I've seen a _lot _of shit. Unlike those of you who've only been to _one _Kingdom, or even just their hometown, _I _actually know what I'm talking about," he said turning to leave. " . . . If you really want Jaune to learn from _you _so badly, just give him the same speech I gave you. Maybe all those insults about being four years late will light some kind of _fire _in his belly. Or drive him into clinical depression and later attempted _suicide_," he amended. "I don't care either way, I'm just training him for the entertainment value. Or until he cracks under the pressure and goes home. I'm not too picky, and as long as he doesn't get anyone worthwhile _killed_, I won't go to Ozpin, or the _media_, about this," he amended, since Ozpin probably _knew _about Jaune's falsehoods but let him in anyway.

" . . . "

Pyrrha could only stare at the Faunus' back as he walked away, trying to raise a knot of ire in her stomach for him, only for her anger to evaporate. She couldn't _fairly _fault him for his words, because he was right on every front. Jaune _lied _his way into Beacon with false transcripts, and only survived through sheer dumb luck and everyone else saving _him_. Jaune didn't make every possible attempt to go to a _Combat _School, wasting away four years of his life in the process just spinning his wheels doing goddess knows _what _before just _deciding _one day to go to Beacon.

And then there were his words about _her_. How her feelings towards him were just superficial and shallow in nature, wanting his attention because he _wasn't_ giving it to her. Becoming infatuated with him without even knowing the slightest thing _about _him other than that one singular point. There _were _things about him she honestly _did _like, but without looking at him through rose-tinted lenses, she was able to see the faults she overlooked before.

Yet despite those very faults, he was putting up with everything Jack threw his way. Getting back up when others would lie down and quit because he honestly _did _want to change. He _did _want to get better. His reasons for it might've been superficial behind all the posturing, but so was _everyone's_.

Well… Maybe not _Ruby's_, but she's the rare, and honest, simple soul.

'_Jack… You might be cold, and a little cruel after everything you've seen, but deep down, I know that you can still care for other people,' _Pyrrha thought with a smile.

He treated Ruby with all the love an older brother would even when he didn't have to. He saw a busty blond-haired girl like Yang as an equal instead of something to be ogled or another notch on a bedpost. He was making an honest attempt to grow closer to Weiss despite her family's history with the Faunus people, going so far as to help her grow. His relationship with Blake was the hardest to get a read on, but at the least he was civil enough to hit the library and study with her. For all of Nora's energy, he was able to match her exuberance pound for pound, and tolerate her eccentricities, showing the patience of a _saint _even if he would disagree with the sentiment. When it came to Ren, he gave the teen his space, and chatted when the opportunity presented itself without being overbearing. Jaune… Maybe Jack _was _just "training" him for shits and giggles, but _somewhere _deep down, he really did want the blond to succeed. Why _else _would he give out actual training instead of something nonsensical like waxing and de-waxing a car under the guise of martial arts training?

And _her_? Jack didn't even _see _"The Invincible Girl", because in the grand scheme of things, there were people _way _stronger than her _and _him, and that titles weren't the be-all end-all she used to think it was.

"Hey, Pyrrha."

"Waaagh!" the red-head let out a rather undignified yelp, having not noticed Jack coming around to her back and tapping her on the shoulder. "Y-Yes."

"I figured you deserved a little peace-of-mind, so I'll say this," Jack said with a sigh. "All things considered, Jaune _is _growing on me."

"Oh, well that's great to-"

"Like the searing pain in an infected flesh wound."

"That's… great to… _hear_?" the red-head asked nervously as she wrapped her head around the metaphor.

"Glad to hear it," Jack said patting the girl on the shoulder before walking off. "Whoo. _That's _a load off my shoulders. Thanks for the chat!"

"Yeah…" Pyrrha said weakly.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Hey all. Been waiting long?" Jack asked as he and Pyrrha rejoined everyone at the abandoned sandlot, finding everyone sitting in the shade of one of the dugouts.

"No. Not long," Weiss replied.

"What did you and Pyrrha talk about?" Yang asked.

"Pyrrha confessed to actually being a _boy _with a _penis _and having a homosexual crush on me," he replied, causing everyone, Pyrrha included, to reel back in shock. "Jeez, can't you guys take a _joke_."

"Dude! Jokes about someone's sexual identity are _never _funny!" Nora booed.

"_Sometimes _they are," Ren quipped back, much to everyone's shock.

" . . . Who are you and what have you done with Ren?" Nora demanded.

"I could ask who replaced _you_," Ren countered smoothly.

" . . . Touche."

"So… What did you call us here for?" Ruby asked, the previous joke going completely over her head.

"For an exercise that's more… _philosophical _in nature," Jack replied. "You don't really need to _do _anything, just open up your ears, and your _mind_, to listen to my words. I guarantee they'll carry you for the rest of your life."

"A bold claim," Weiss said with crossed arms.

"With how-obsessed the educational curriculum within the Kingdoms are with all their _feel-good _nonsense, I guarantee this is nothing you've ever been told before," Jack challenged, wagging a finger at the heiress coyly. "Before I begin, a pop quiz: What is Aura?"

"What is _Aura_?" Weiss balked at his question. "Anyone with a _pulse_ would know what Aura is," she huffed with crossed arms, while Jaune wilted off to the side. "I imagine only a total _incompetent _would come to Beacon without knowing what Aura is," she added, causing the quote-unquote "masculine" blonde to wilt further. "I mean really, how foolish would one have to be to-"

"I believe we're getting off track," Pyrrha interrupted, Jaune off to the side drawing circles in the dirt with his finger in depression, the damage done. "To answer your question… _professor_," the red-head said testing the word on her tongue. "Aura is the manifestation of our souls. It bears our burdens, and shields our hearts. With practice, our Aura can become our shield, as well as our sword; tools usable by Humans, Faunus, and even some _animals_. Understanding both light and dark helps us manifest our Aura, and no person possesses one but completely lacks in the other. However, it is by resisting the darkness in our hearts that we rise above temptation, and become a paragon of virtue to rise above all."

"Hmmm… Yes… A very textbook answer," Jack hummed with a nod of his head. "And therein… lies the _problem_."

"What do you mean? It's the right answer, isn't it?" Yang asked.

"Pyrrha's answer wasn't wrong, however, what it _is_, is incomplete," Jack returned. "The fact that people possess both Light and Dark in their hearts is fact. However, what is _not _fact, is that Darkness is _evil_. In the same way that justice is shaped by the hand that claims it, the concepts of good and evil are just that; _concepts_. It is only those with _authority _who decide what _counts _as good, and what _counts _as evil. A priest who espouses justice can commit atrocities in god's name, and a vigilante fighting outside the bounds of a corrupt system can claim justice for themselves or others _when _the system fails. That you automatically assume Darkness is evil is the pinnacle of ignorance, _and _arrogance. An arrogance which can and _will _be your eventual undoing."

"How can Darkness _not _be evil? It's _Darkness_!" Blake growled.

"As I said before, such thinking is the pinnacle of _ignorance_," Jack huffed. Grabbing a nearby stick, he began to draw in the dirt, the eyes of RWBY and JNPR drawn to his work as he drew a circle, a wavy line between to sides, and then a circle in each rounded half. He then began to shade it with hash-marks, one set of hash marks through one dot, and another set of hash marks through the opposing quadrant.

"Yin and Yang? What does that have to do with this?" Jaune asked.

"The answer stares you in the face, and yet you still do not understand," Jack sighed, shaking his head in pity. "Yin-Yang, otherwise known as "Taìjí tú", is a representation of the duality between darkness and light, chaos and peace. This concept from Chinese philosophy dictates the way in which these opposing forces are interconnected, but more importantly, _independent _of the natural world. As you can clearly see," he said tapping the symbol in the dirt with his stick. "Each half of the Yin-Yang contains vestigial elements of the other, symbolizing how each side bears part of the other and how one part cannot _exist _without the other," he said pointing out how a bit of Darkness existed within the Light, and how a bit of the Light existed within the Darkness."

"I still think _you're _the one that's in the wrong," Jaune huffed with crossed arms. "Chaos is the very _definition _of evil. It's only in _order _that we can find peace and happiness."

"And what peace and happiness would there be to be found during the _Dark Ages_?" Jack countered, a wicked grin on his face. "In case you've forgotten, the so-called _order _present throughout the Dark Ages is what _caused _suffering, a time of evil and hatred led by nobles who claimed that their right to rule was given to them through god. It was only through a revolution, through _chaos_, that the darkness ended and a _true _peace was attained. Something you clearly fail to realize, _Jaune_, is that "order" can also mean _"stagnancy", _a rotting decay that saps the life out of everything around it."

"Jack raises a very good point," Ren said with a nod, causing Jaune to jerk back. "If things remain the same for too long, then societal decay is inevitable. It's only through _rebirth_ that we can move forward."

"Oh! You mean like how all the past Kingdoms would fall because they stayed in one place for too long? Because they _stagnated_?" Nora asked.

"That's a very intelligent articulation. I would agree," Weiss said with a nod.

"So then the whole Dark and Light thing, isn't black _or _white?" Ruby asked.

"As I've said before," Jack said tapping the Yin-Yang on the ground at his feet. "Light is born from Darkness, just as Darkness is born from Light. They are one in the same, no _distinction _between the two; only an infinite spectrum between each extreme," he said blurring out the edge with the toe of his sandal, _creating _that spectrum. "I now propose _this _question for you all," he said getting their attention. "What do you do when there is an evil you cannot defeat with just means? Do you stain your hands with evil to destroy a greater evil, or do you remain steadfastly just and righteous even if it means _surrendering _to evil?"

"In either case… evil remains…" Weiss said as she nervously bit her thumbnail.

For several minutes, the members of Team RWBY and JNPR all adopted contemplative poses, racking their brains to find an answer. Eventually it was _Jaune _who rose up to answer, though not because of a great mental clarity…

"I would chose… to remain steadfast to justice!"

No... He instead did so because of that same "pinnacle of ignorance and arrogance" Jack had only _just _finished warning them _of_.

"You say that is your answer, but what of the future?" Jack asked. "Say by some miracle you _do _become a Huntsman and are forced into that kind of position. You may be able to protect your _own _life while remaining steadfast to justice, but what of _others_. In exchange for indulging that self-centered desire to keep your hands free from the stain of committing evil, _others _may be forced to pay the price. Those that lose loved ones _because _of such inaction will bear resentment towards you, thus _completing _the cycle. _Darkness_ borne from light," he said tapping the hash-marked circle and gesturing towards the brighter half of the Yin-Yang on the ground. "Huntsmen and Huntresses will not _always _be the good guys like the fairy tales you have been brought up on. Sometimes, you'll have to weigh lives against _other _lives, for in trying to save _everybody_… you will save _no one,_" he said ominously.

"So… this darkness in our hearts… it isn't something we can ever _escape_?" Ruby said clutching her chest.

"The darkness in your heart was _never _something you could escape. That darkness will _always _be a part of you, but that does not mean you are evil," Jack said letting a small smile pull at his features as he gently ruffled her hair. "Crimes of passion often stem from love. For that reason, does that mean that to _love _someone is to be evil? Does that mean that love is _inherently _evil, because passion can lead _to_ evil?"

When the red-hooded girl thought of love, what came to mind was her mother, her father, her sister, and her uncle. However, what stood out most-prominently in her mind's eyes apart from her family, was a shocking-white mop of messy white hair, bright red eyes, and perky rabbit ears.

" . . . No," Ruby said shaking her head, a smile on her face. "Passion and love is _not _evil. Only the things we do in the _name _of passion," she spoke maturely.

"That's the way," Jack said with a smile. "Do not deny the darkness in your heart, for in doing so, it will grow and fester without your knowing. It is in being aware of and _accepting _the darkness in your heart, that you _truly _gain control over it. Not by _ignoring _it and pretending it isn't there."

"_Hey, Ren."_

"_Yes, Nora?"_

"_Is Jack being all _philosophical _weirding you out too?"_

"_No, Nora. That's just you."_

"Is that why you're so much stronger than the rest of us?" Yang asked. "Because you're _aware _of the darkness inside of you, and have accepted it as a part of yourself?"

"That's only _one _part of it, but an important part nonetheless," Jack answered with a nod. "To _deny _your darkness is the same as closing one of your eyes to the world around you. While it's true you can still _see _with only a single eye, denying that other half of yourself is the same as ignoring half of the world's splendor by your own volition."

"So in a more _literal _sense… if you ignore the darkness _in _your soul in favor of only the lighter half… you only have access to half your Aura?" Blake asked.

"Half of your _potential _Aura, but yes, you've grasped the message quite well," Jack answered. "People who deny the darkness within themselves tooth-and-nail are essentially _ignoring _half of their souls, and since the soul is _where _Aura comes from, well… It shouldn't be _that _difficult to grasp. Even for the dumbest among us."

"Why are you looking at _me _when you say that?!" Jaune whined as the Faunus' eyes fell on him.

"If you don't even _know _why, you really _are _the dumbest among us," Jack said in a deadpan.

"Hey! . . . Shut up!" the blond bit back weakly.

"Now, I don't expect you to take my words at face value without a grain of salt, nor do I expect you to _embrace _your inner darkness straightaway," Jack said completely ignoring Jaune. "Every person is different, no two souls exactly the same unless a match in Wavelength is done _artificially_. What works for _one _person in terms of their Aura won't work for everyone. I came to _terms _with my inner darkness _on _my own terms, but each and every one of you has different _kinds _of darkness in your hearts, so you need to find your _own _answers. Once you _find _that answer…" he said as he began to move his arms in circular motions, sparks trailing off of extended fingertips. "A whole _world _will open up to you," he said touching fingertips before snapping out his arms, a streak of crimson lightning leaving his fingertips and glassing part of the sandlot in the process.

"So then if you still _deny _your inner darkness, a technique like that which is dictated by the _duality _of your soul will be impossible?" Nora asked with a (supposedly) rare moment of clarity.

"Exactly. People who have the gall to _think _they're pure-of-heart with no wickedness in their souls _will _eventually hit a wall they can _never _surmount," Jack said with a dramatic flair. "That's why mad priests or villains can _only _get so strong. Because they think that there's only _one _path to power, when in actuality, "both" are actually "one in the same"."

"So all you have to do is pull your light into _one _hand, and your darkness into the _other_?" Nora asked as she imitated Jack's movements, albeit with more pep in her footwork and a higher tempo, trails of pink electricity spilling off her fingertips.

"Nora, _wait_!" Jack yelped as Nora brought her fingers together. Throwing her hands out, instead of a pink-colored arc of lightning, there was instead a black and pink cloud of smoke when the reaction detonated in front of her face. The ginger girl sent flying back, Ren easily caught her, the girl's hair puffed out into a smoky afro, her eyes swirling in her head.

"Guuuuh..." Nora drooled mindlessly.

"And that right there shows the _danger _of trying to control _both _halves of your Aura before you're ready," Jack said with a sweatdrop as he turned his attention back to the others. "However, like I said before, _control _of one's Aura is neither a concrete science, nor is it an abstract concept, it's metaphysical in nature, and no two people will have the same _answer_. It's up to _you _to sift through your life's experiences and find your own answers, because there's a difference in _saying _you accept the darkness in your heart, and actually _accepting _that darkness wholeheartedly," he said patting his chest.

"So, _professor_~" Yang cooed. "Any other words of wisdom for us?"

"Well… I do have _some _other words of wisdom to share, however… their source material is a little… _questionable_," Jack admitted.

"Questionable _how_? We talking back-alley-_doctor _questionable, or root-induced _drug _trip questionable?" Ruby asked, referring to the whole "Do or Do Not. There is no Try." advice

"More like heatstroke in the middle of the Gourmet _Desert _questionable," the Faunus replied.

"_Gourmet _Desert?" Pyrrha asked with a tilt of her head.

"The Gourmet Desert is located in the most _extreme _regions of the Vacuan Deserts, where the temperatures are _consistently _in the triple-digits during the daytime and below-zero at night. The reason for the _Gourmet _prefix is… actually, the _why _of it isn't important. All you need to know is that _this _piece of advice came to me while my brain was cooking from heatstroke in the middle of the desert," Jack waved off. "Basically, it was probably a hallucination, but the stuff actually panned out, so I took the effort to memorize it."

"What _kind _of hallucination?" Ruby asked, wondering what worldly advice he had to share. Sure, her uncle Qrow _also _tried to give her worldly advice, but the guy was so hammered on the _sauce _that he was barely lucid enough to get anything _useful _out of him that didn't involve, and she-quotes, "TINY MINI-SKIRTS!"

"One of a wise, and rotund, Chinese man that drank tea while he drew pictures in the sand."

"What did he say?" Nora asked.

"Ah-heh-hem!" Jack coughed into his fist as he kicked his drawing-stick into his hand before putting the tip into a fresh plot of sand. "Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy to drive and achieve what they want," he said drawing a flame-like emblem in the sand, enclosing it in a square before moving the end of his stick above it. "The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring," he continued drawing a rigid beveled tile-like shape, enclosed within a square like a first before moving to the lower left. "Air is the element of freedom. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom," he said drawing three spirals in close proximity like a meeting of air currents, enclosing it in a square before moving to one last symbol above it. "Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything," he said drawing a crested wave within a circle, which he then enclosed in another square like the three that came before. "It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale," he said as he separated the four marked tiles from one another with a cross. "Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations, will help you become whole," he said encircling all four with a circle. "It is the combination of the four elements in one person that makes the Avatar so powerful."

"So basically the short of it is, part of why you're so strong, is because you took knowledge from all the present-_day _Kingdoms as opposed to just one?" Weiss asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Jack answered. "It was that and a lot of hard work too. The effort you get out of your body is equivalent to the effort you put _in _to it."

"Still, I don't recognize any of those names. Fire Nation? Earth Kingdom? Air Nomads? Water Tribe?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head. "And who is this _Avatar _you mentioned at the end?"

"Hallucinations aren't known to come with _context,_" Jack deadpanned.

"It's possible that the heatstroke gave him a form of episodic vision, an epiphanatic moment of clarity where his subconscious delivered a spiritual message in a way he could understand while compensating for the lack of real-world knowledge based on the context of the subject. That and because his brain was baking inside his skull from the excess temperature," Nora summarized, everyone gawping widely at the orange-haired girl.

"That or he communed with the spirit of a wise man from another world cross-dimensionally while he was near-death," Ren summarized, everyone now openly gawking at _him_.

"Um… Did I _miss _something here?" Blake asked as she looked back and forth between the two.

"Yeah, it's like something out of Wacky Wednesday," Yang said, thinking back to a movie where two people inexplicably switched bodies with one another.

"Nora, you are not nearly as dumb as you let on to be," Jack hummed.

"Thank you!" Nora chirped with a smile.

"You know… You have some _really _crazy stories," Yang hummed. "Still… What _were _you doing in the desert for so long that you got _heatstroke_?"

"My godfather borderline _kidnapped _me from my hotel room, dragged me out into the middle of nowhere, and then proceeded to beat the living shit out of me before _leaving_ me in the middle of said nowhere with a concussion, two broken legs, and a dislocated shoulder," the Faunus answered as he rolled his right arm, jaws dropping all-around. "You think _I'm _strong, well my godfather is a _real _fucking monster."

" . . . _Whyyyyy_?" Yang gawped once she got her wits about her. "Why would a relative _do _something like that to you?!"

"He doesn't like weaklings, or cocky people. I just happen to be _both_ every time we happen to cross paths," Jack shrugged.

"_You_? _Weak_?" Weiss asked with wide eyes.

"Think of it like this. If Jauney-boy there is the helpless ant larvae beneath my boot, then my godfather is the flaming semi-truck trailer hitting me in the face," Jack returned. "Oh, and the flaming semi-truck trailer is carrying a nuke."

"Why am _I _the ant in that metaphor?" Jaune whined.

"_Larvae_. You're the ant _larvae _under my boot," Jack returned. "In case I haven't said this to _all _of you, I'll say it again. All of your strength, all of _my _strength, is _nothing _compared to what you'll find in the outside world. I might recognize Professor Goodwitch as someone strong I want to fight again someday, but even for all _her _strength, my godfather, my uncle, my _other _uncle, and even some of my extended family, are still stronger than her by far."

"Jeez, what the hell is your family tree _made _of? _Adamantium_?" Nora balked.

"Something like that," Jack shrugged. "NEXT EXERCISE!"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright, gang. This exercise is for _everyone_, and you don't need Aura to do it well."

"So I guess the conversation from earlier is _done _then," Nora huffed as Jack went back into "coach mode".

"You can use _Semblance _if you feel like it, your spiritual super-power is only limited by your creativity, but outside of that, I don't think you'll be _hurting _yourselves enough that Aura would become an issue. Not unless you're _trying _to hurt yourself at least."

Currently, Teams RWBBY and JNPR were standing in one of the wooded Training Grounds just outside of Beacon, but still close enough you could see the school through the treeline. There was a large boulder or two scattered about the field, as well as a couple of trees in the middle of the area that had seen better days, patches of dirt and grass scattered about.

"I'll bite. What's this exercise like?" Yang asked.

"It's a game… of _T__ag_!" he said after a dramatic pause, everyone looking at the Faunus with a flat expression wondering where the punchline was. "However, here's the glib," Jack said pulling out black strips of cloth from his back pockets. "Everyone _else _has to wear the blindfolds, instead of the person who's _it_."

"Wait, how is _that _fair?" Weiss asked. "Wouldn't everyone else be at a disadvantage?"

"The whole point of this exercise is to promote _intuitive _thinking," Jack answered in turn as he tapped his temple. "You have to be able to act without thought or preamble to your surroundings if you want to succeed at this exercise."

"Sooooo… This is to help us resist sneak-attacks from our blind-spots?" Ruby asked. "Or how to fight when we know absolutely nothing about an opponent?"

_***Clap***_ "Nailed it."

"I still think you're making this up," Yang huffed with crossed arms.

" . . . I see," Jack hummed. "Blake," he said causing the girl to perk up. "Saddle up. Yang's going to try and tag you first, you have to _avoid _it."

"Kay," the girl shrugged, catching the blindfold tossed her way.

"When'd _you _two get so close?" the blond asked as Blake put the blindfold around her eyes.

"Not important. Now go grab your partner," he said jabbing a thumb at Blake, whose arms were crossed behind her back.

Deciding not to waste any time, Yang ran as fast as she could and shouted- "Tag, you're it!" -as she lunged at Blake, the girl blurring away a yard to the right from a Shadow. "You're it!" the blond shouted again. _***Whif***_ "You're it!" _***Whif* **_"YOU'RE IT!" _***Whif* **_"IT-" _***Whif* **_"IT-" _***Whif* **_"IT!" she growled as she tried to reach Blake five more times, the result the same as the last. **"BLAKE-" **_***Whif***_** "YOU-" **_***Whif***_ **"ARE-"** _***Whif***_ **"IT!" **she shouted growing angrier.

Several more dodges later and Blake had a bored look on her blindfolded face while Yang was slumped over, sweat pouring down her forehead as she panted with her hands her knees. Stumbling forward, the blond raised her arm in an attempt to tag her partner over-head, but her hand simply passed through the ribbon-wearing girl as she shifted backwards.

"I can't help but think that'd be totally _adorable _in chibi," Nora hummed.

"Sure it would," Ren said as he pat her head.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

After Blake thoroughly proved there was a _method _to Jack's madness, the others slowly got behind the idea of the weird game he proposed for training. On the surface it only appeared to be a bunch of teenagers goofing around with blindfolds on, but beyond that, it wasn't _only _about intuitive thinking, but also a great exercise for how to fight when your eyesight couldn't be trusted. Blake of course was borderline _unstoppable _during the early stages of the game because every time someone thought they'd gotten a grasp on her, she'd always "shadow step" out of the way. Since Jack was the one to _propose _the exercise, he excused himself from the game to observe, offer advice where he could.

Of course, the problem was that no-one _asked_, leaving Jack with nothing to do.

"Okay… New rule…" a red-eyed Yang panted out, her hair matted around her face after Nora egged her on to try again. "No more Semblance."

"You'd sound a lot more convincing if you weren't all red-eyed while your hair was on fire," Blake chimed.

"Okay, that blindfold _has_ be see-through, 'cause there's no way you could know that," the blond growled.

"I don't need eyes to know you smell like a bonfire when you're like that," Blake chirped in return, causing the blond to pout cutely. Or at least as cute as a girl with murderous red eyes and her hair aflame could be.

"At least she doesn't smell like burning _hair,_" Ruby pouted. "One time Yang _actually _lit her hair on fire thinking it'd make her Semblance work better. Didn't really work out like planned."

"I only lit Zwei on fire _one time_!" Yang snapped in Ruby's direction. "Ugh, I'm totally beat. Can I take a break?"

"Sure thing. Wouldn't want you to _burn yourself out _over this_,_" Jack chuckled.

" . . . _Damn _that was good," the blond said as she fanned herself, walking into the shade of a nearby tree.

"Don't get all _hot and bothered _just yet," Jack said with a fanged grin. "I'm just getting _warmed up._"

"I wanna bang you… _so hard _right now!" Yang blurted out, something about Jack's puns lighting a _fire _in her-

"Yang! Gross!" Ruby yelped with a red face.

"Really! Have some decency!" Weiss squealed as she covered her flushed face.

"_And me without my notebook," _Blake muttered under her breath.

"_How can one guy be so damn lucky?" _Jaune muttered under his breath. Sure, he had a huge love-boner for Weiss, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the bodacious bod of a girl like Yang Xiao Long. Especially the way her short-shorts hugged her-

"Flag! That was a total _flag_!" Nora blurted out, Ren patting her on the head while Pyrrha covered her flushed face with her hands.

"Man, you girls have _zero threshold _for stuff like this," Jack said as he looked between Weiss and Pyrrha. "Anyway, I'm gonna go grab a cooler and some drinks. If you feel like you're dehydrating, sit under a tree and wait for me to get back," he said walking off, leaving Teams Ruby and Juniper minus one Ratel.

"So… Who's going to be _it _next?" Ruby asked after a few seconds.

"I can go on a little more," Blake shrugged. "This is actually pretty good training."

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"I leave the eight of you alone for like… _ten minutes _and this is what I find when I get back?" Jack asked incredulously as he found the bulk of RWBBY and JNPR face-down on the ground in various states of humiliating defeat, an untouched Blake standing cooly in the center, rocking on her heels.

"Don't… take… that tone with me…" Weiss grumbled, the dirtiest of the bunch. She'd tried closing the gap between herself and Blake with her Glyphs, but whenever she shot herself off, Blake wouldn't just _dodge_; she'd stick her foot out and make the heiress trip. Because _Blake _was the one that was blindfolded, the heiress had no way of knowing if making her trip into the dirt or the grass was _intentional _or not, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary.

"You _do _know that more than one of you is supposed to wear blindfolds, right?" Jack asked as he kicked the cooler open.

"No, we _don't_. You left to grab water before explaining all the rules to us," Weiss bit back as she reached in to rehydrate herself, followed swiftly by the others.

" . . . Fair point," Jack shrugged. "Probably doesn't help I took the blindfolds _with _me," he said setting down the cooler on the ground before pulling out the rest of the blindfolds. "Anyway, the rules are simple. The person who is _it _does not wear the blindfold. Those who are _not _it, _do_, and it's their job to not get tagged."

"But how do we stop from running into one another?" Nora asked.

"That's on _you guys_," Jack retorted.

" . . . You know what? No, this is just _stupid_!" Jaune snapped as he got to his feet. "You talk a big game, but all _you've _done today is throw shit, or have _other _people throw shit, or just sit around and do nothing while the rest of us sweat ourselves dry! How about _you _be the center of attention for a change!?" he growled at the Faunus, the others looking at him with wide eyes at how he talked back to the Faunus he was normally so submissive to. That he actually had the _courage _to talk back to Jack was a testament unto itself.

" . . . Huh. This is a new feeling; _pride _in someone else," Jack hummed taking a contemplative pose. "Unfortunately, it's overshadowed by ALL THIS UNYIELDING RAGE!" he the bellowed with a red-eyed glare. The crimson hate-aura spilling out of Jack's body caused Jaune to crumple like a wet sock, leaving the blond cowering on the ground as the livid Faunus towered over him. A closed fist extending towards the now-cowering blond, Jaune crossed his arms in front of his face and clamped his eyes shut, only to blink in confusion when the murderous aura disappeared, a handful of black blindfolds dropping onto his head.

"Uh… What?" Jaune asked confusedly.

"If you think I'm blowing smoke at my ass, by all means… **let me prove you wrong," **Jack said in an ominous tone that sent shivers down RWBY and JNPR's spines. The Faunus stepping away from everyone into the center of the field, he took one of the blindfolds and secured it around his eyes, before wrapping the other over the weasel-like ears atop his head. Crossing his left arm behind his back, he raised his right hand forward and made a "come here" motion with his fingers, slouching forward as he stood lazily on his feet.

" . . . Are we supposed to _do _something?" Nora asked a minute later, breaking the silence.

"I think we're _all _it, and we're _all _supposed to try and tag him," Ruby hummed.

"Hey Jaune."

"Yes, Ren?"

"You still think he's blowing smoke out his ass?" the Mistrali teen questioned. "Cause from the way I see it… it's either time for you to _put up _or _shut up_."

'_Dammit, Jack. Was this your plan all along? Goad me into saying something stupid and hen making me eat my words?' _the blond asked as he quaked in his shoes, the Faunus positively _oozing _confidence.

No… That wasn't quite it either. The Faunus wasn't releasing _any _kind of intent. It's like he was just _standing _there, not a thought through his head as he lazily waited for them in the middle of the field.

"CHAAAAARGE!" Jaune screamed at the top of his lungs, arms raised as he prepared to tag the Faunus.

"Don't do it, Jaune! He already knows what you're up to?" Pyrrha cried as the blond closed the distance between himself and his target.

_***WHAM***_

The next moment Jack's heel came down on Jaune's head, plowing the blond face-first into the ground, the Faunus resuming his lazy stance, now standing atop his defeated adversary.

"Holy crap!" Nora yelped. "Jack never said he'd hit _back_!"

"He never said he _wouldn't_."

" . . . Fair point, Ren. Fair point," Nora conceded.

"Alright that's _it_! Time to kick it up a notch!" Nora said, giggling manically as she took out her Scroll and typed codes and coordinates into an App whose icon was shaped like a rocket-propelled locker. An explosion going off in the distance, several seconds later, one of Beacon's rocket-propelled lockers fell into the training ground with a loud _***CRASH***_, the door flying open revealing Magnhild in its grenade launcher configuration.

"N-Nora! What're you doing?" Pyrrha squealed as the ginger took out her weapon and twirled it around into its war hammer configuration.

"If Jack has flexibility, then all _I _need is _reach_!" Nora said as she ran at Jack, her reach _much _greater with her Magnhild in hand.

Swinging it out in a wide horizontal arc, Jack leaned back at the waist like in a game of limbo, the end of Nora's hammer missing completely as he leaned back at a right angle. Nora twirling around with the swing of her hammer, she then raised it up in an overhead smash, the Faunus folding over until his hands touched the ground, before throwing his feet overhead completely and flipping out of the way as the Magnhild came crashing down.

"Hey, don't leave _me _out of the fun!" Yang said crushing the water bottle in her hand as she rose to her feet. Summoning her own rocket-propelled locker, the busty blond withdrew her Ember Celica and a pair of ammo belts, loading them with a flourish before cocking the two Dual Range Shot Gauntlets. Throwing out a right jab, a screaming flare tore through the air towards Jack's torso, the Faunus standing stock-still before it _literally _punched a hole through him. "HOLY SHIT!"

"No! Wait!" Blake called out as Yang began to freak out. "It's only an afterimage!" she said as the Jack that was shot disappeared into nothing, the Faunus appearing a yard to the right before he zipped off again, leaving another afterimage in his wake.

"Jeez, Jack certainly isn't making this _easy_," Nora said with a grin as she ran at the nearest one, only for her hammer to pass through, a ring of blurry-edged Jacks appearing around the group a few seconds later, each with the same languid stance.

"How's he even _doing _this?" Ruby asked, trying to wrap her head around how the Faunus could so _consistently _leave afterimages of himself behind. The sheer _velocity _required was mind-boggling, even for a speed-freak like her.

"Well, Jack _does _have more experience than any _one _of us, so his Intuition could just be really, _really _strong," Yang summarized, since as far as _she _knew he'd been fighting since he was nine years old. So… _literally _half of his life he'd been actively fighting.

"To be able to move so instinctively, I'm impressed," Pyrrha hummed, reaching for her Scroll in her pocket, only to let her arm fall a moment later. _'If I add my own rifle to the mix, I could accidentally hit one of my friends. Cause things to escalate,' _she thought to herself. "There's only one option! Tag them all until we reach the original!"

"Right!" Weiss said as she ran alongside Pyrrha to two of the clones in the ring. The two of them passing through their selected clones, Weiss redirected her momentum with a Glpyh, while Pyrrha lashed out a series of kicks with her statuesque legs. After a few seconds the ring began to break, the afterimage next to Weiss solidifying.

"It wouldn't be much fun if I didn't try my best, either," Ren hummed as he threw out his hand, a pair of three-pointed shuriken with magenta accents dropping into his palm. His hand blurring as he let the two fly, one hid in the shadow of the other, each whizzing through the air towards Jack's perceived blind spot.

The Faunus' response however was to swing out his arm, catching the first shuriken before letting it fly back and lock blades with the second in mid-air. As the two shuriken fell toward the ground, Blake rushed at him from what was supposed to be his blind spot, reaching for the nape of his neck. The open Faunus' counter was for him to crouch at the knees before back-punching her in the face. Scarcely a moment later and Ruby rushed towards him in a flurry of rose petals, bodily flinging herself towards him in a cyclone of red cloth. Jack's response was to lean back out of her reach, the girl's arms flailing wildly as she missed him.

"Ruby! Look out for that tree!" Weiss cried as the red-hooded girl careened face-first toward one of the trees in the field.

"Uwaaaaaah!" Ruby cried as the tree drew closer and closer to her, the speed she was going at all but _guaranteeing _it was going to hurt.

"**CRESCENT DARK MOON!"**

Moments before Ruby could crash face-first into the tree, Jack shot past her and tore the blindfold free, his eyes now glinting crimson as he lashed out with three roundhouse kicks. His right heel ripping three huge gashes out of the bark all the way to the center with powerful blows, the Faunus finished it off with a powerful full-bicycle kick that carved a black moon's edge into the air around him. As a result, instead of coming to a dead-stop against a solid tree, she instead tumbled through a cloud of bark and splinters, bodily tumbling across the ground. The moment she came to a stop, Yang was the first to her side, fussing over her without end as she picked bark out of her hair like a worried mother.

"D-Don't worry, Yang, I'm okay," Ruby told her sister. "Jack, thank yo-"

"What the hell's _wrong _with you?!" Jack snapped at her.

"Wh-Wha?!"

"Do you know what could've happened to you if I hadn't stepped in?! You could've gotten yourself _killed_!" the Faunus raged at her. "What the hell were you _thinking_, taking off like that when there was a fully-grown tree _right _in front of you!?"

"I-I just got caught in the heat of the moment and-"

"Don't you _ever _do something so reckless again! YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" he roared, causing Ruby to completely wilt, hiding behind her sister like a child with their mother.

"Hey! What the hell's your problem?!" Yang raged, hair alight with flame. Two sets of crimson orbs staring into one another, surprisingly enough, it was _Jack_ who caved first, a clawed hand going to his head and blood dribbling down his chin from where he bit his lip. "J-Jack?" the blond gaped as her anger evaporated, the Faunus' eyes rapidly shifting between jade, amber, and crimson. "Jack, what's-"

"Just stay out of my way!" Jack growled as he stormed off at full speed. "Mother**FUCKER!" **he raged as he lashed out with a reverse roundhouse kick, his left heel utterly _destroying _a tree on his right side as he continued into the woods, the sounds of exploding bark and rage-filled shouts echoing towards them.

"Ruby, are you going to be alright on your own?" Yang asked worriedly.

"Yeah, sis. I'll be fine," Ruby replied.

"Alright… I'm going to talk to him. You just sit tight," Yang said dusting herself off before running after Jack, leaving the rest of RWBBY and JNPR in shock as to what just happened.

"So…" Nora hummed as she rested the end of her weapon on the ground. "Does this mean we're on break or what?"

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"**MO! THER! FU! KING! PIECE! OF! SHIT!" ** Jack roared, wisps of murderous aura rising off his body as he violently felled a tree with each kick. Alternating between his left and right legs with high, mid, and low-aimed kicks, the angry Faunus carved a path of destruction through the forest outside Beacon grounds, his eyes flickering between their trifecta of colors. **"WHY THE HELL DO I STILL **_**FEEL **_**LIKE THIS! AFTER ALL THESE GODDESS-DAMNED **_**YEARS**_**!" **he raged as he Sparta kicked a tree directly in front of him to oblivion. The raging Faunus running out of steam, he slumped forward and rested his hands on his knees, panting tiredly as sweat poured out his bow.

"Jack, what's wrong?" Yang asked running up behind him.

"Leave me _alone, _Yang…" Jack growled as he kicked a grapefruit-sized chunk out of another tree. "I don't feel like _talking _right now…!"

"_Yeah_? Well _I _do!" Yang growled as her eyes flashed crimson and a plume of embers danced through the air. "Jack…" she said as her eyes bled back to lilac. "You need to tell me what's wrong, otherwise I can't _help_ you."

"Did you ever think that maybe I _don't _need your help?!" Jack snapped at her.

"All these defenseless _trees _you're kicking the bark out of say otherwise," Yang said lazily waving to the trail of decimated trees behind them. "Jack… I've seen you mad before, but this is a whole different _kind _of anger, and if you don't tell me what's eating at you… I won't be able to understand why you're _acting _like this."

"Ha! _This _coming from the girl who nearly took Blake's head off because she pulled out a strand of hair with her own damned hairbrush," Jack sneered.

"This and that are totally different!" Yang growled with crimson eyes. "_I _never actually _hurt _anyone when I got angry… _most _of the time," she admitted. "But still! This is a very ugly side of you that I don't like, and you need to cut it out!"

" . . . "

"And another thing, what was _that_?!" she asked pointing to the very first tree he destroyed in the distance, the two Teams gathered around it as they lazed about with drinks from the cooler.

" . . . The Traubel Style…" Jack muttered after several moments, flexing his toes. "The fighting style that carried me through the four years I spent in _hell_," he growled with narrowed eyes while Yang's own went wide. "Every time I use it, my mind flashes back to that time… To the horrors I was forced to endure and _commit_ as I waded through oceans of blood…" he growled, bulging veins running up his legs. "When those feelings come rushing back, I can barely control my anger. Even after five years, that roiling pit of rage still remains within the depths of my soul, a hateful flame that can never be extinguished," he said as he bit his lip.

"Then why did you use it to save Ruby if it fills you with so much hate it makes you lose your shit like this?" Yang asked.

"It was a spur of the moment," Jack said as he angrily ground his heel into the ground, spiderweb cracks beginning to spread underneath his sandal. "Plus, I'm pretty sure if she concussed herself, she'd fall way behind all the _other _losers that Juniper and the rest of Ruby has to share Freshman year with."

"You know, I've been meaning to ask… What ever _happened _to your old Team? I haven't seen them around since the major butt-kicking you gave them at the start of the school year," Yang said crossing her arms.

"Where they are isn't important, and it isn't like they're any match for me."

"They seemed to give you a pretty hard time when _you _fought them," Yang rebutted with crossed arms.

"That's only because I hadn't gotten a decent meal or night's sleep in the entire _week_ I'd been a member of Team Dirge," Jack rebutted. "Now that I'm consistently getting eight hours' sleep and eating well, those two-bit fuckers don't stand a _chance _against me," he grinned manically. "And if those assholes try to screw with me again, I'll _break _them. Like a kit-kat bar."

"If you threatened to break their _legs _like kit-kat bars you'd probably have Nora _creaming _herself," Yang joked.

"The fact that it probably _would _pan out that way both horrifies and arouses me. Horrouses me you might say," Jack chuckled tiredly, his eyes bleeding back to jade. "But anyway… If any of my friends ever get into deep shit, even if it brings out the ugliest of ugly sides from me, I _will _use the Traubel Style again. Most-anything I _use _it on never really gets back up again, since a person's leg-strength is almost _always _double that of your arms, and my upper body strength isn't anything to snuff at."

"So… If you used that style on _Melanie_… how would she fare?" Yang asked. Aside from Pyrrha, Melanie had given her the hardest fight because leg-based fighters were always her Kryptonite.

"Comparing me to her in that regard is like comparing night and day," Jack returned. "Her style is based around elegant dance-like movements with bladed heels to "kill with bug bites" and slowly bleed an opponent dry. The Traubel Style on the other hand hits like a sledgehammer after your Aura is properly channeled through the _meridians _in your body and expelled at the point of contact. And the moment your opponent is forced into the air…" he said dragging a thumb across his throat. **"You're **_**dead**_**…" **he growled ominously, causing Yang to shiver. "But anyhow, I think it'll be a good long while before you have to see that side of me again. Until something _serious _happens, this was just a one-time thing."

"I should hope so. You really scared Ruby back there."

"I'll be sure to apologize to her later," Jack said scratching his head. "Anyway, you go on back to the others. I'm going to cool my head a little before we go off for one last exercise," he said sitting on a nearby stump. That he happened to have made himself.

"One last exercise? Like what?" Yang asked.

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

"Alright Jaune, now, we're going to play dodge ball with _actual _balls," Jack said holding up a spherical shell of red rubber, the group now relocated to a vacant gymnasium. Apparently the floor of the gym they used _earlier _was being buffed for… reasons.

"Oh thank god…" Jaune groaned. He was still really tender from getting clubbed upside the head with flying wrenches, as well as the heel-kick from earlier he took to the skull, so the comparative softness of rubberized projectiles was a welcome change of pace.

"However, this is no _ordinary _dodge ball."

"I-It's not?" Jaune gulped as a knot of dread formed in his stomach.

"Pressurized arctic air… surrounded by red _bulletproof _rubber… the _ultimate _dodge ball!" he said holding it on high like some kind of holy artifact. Jaune didn't know if he was still concussion-y from the tennis balls or the wrenches or even the heel kick, but the blond _swore _he saw rays of light and a halo around the dodge ball in Jack's hands, as well as the singing of angels in his ears.

"Hey, as long as you're throwing that instead of wrenches, I've got no problem with this exercise," Jaune sighed, happy he was going to have something _easy _to do today.

"Who said _I _was going to throw this?" Jack asked, the Human gulping as a knot of dread filled up his stomach. "Oh Noooraaaaaaa~"

"Yes, coach!" the chipper red-head saluted as she came in, clad in a puffy white shirt, burgundy bloomers, white sneakers, and a long flowing pink-colored headband.

"Use The Force, Noraaa…" Jack said in an echo-y tone as he held out the dodge ball reverently to Nora. Slapped onto the side of the sphere of red rubber was a large **FORCE! **decal enclosed in a zig-zagging red-and-yellow superhero bubble.

"Got it," the orange-haired girl said with a manic grin, her arm drawn back as arcs of pink electricity danced across the red rubber shell.

"Wait, I thought you said that thing was made of rubbERRRRRRRRR!" the blond squelched out as he was stuck in the gut and simultaneously electrified. "H-H-H-H-How di-di-did that even hap-hap-happen?" he said as he shook it off. "Rubber doesn't conduct electricity!"

"It's AURA, Numbnuts," Jack deadpanned as Nora reared back another throw.

"My name _isn't _Numbnuts, it's-" _***THUMP* **_"_Numbnuts!_" the blond squealed as Nora's next throw struck him in the junk, his entire body going rigid before he landed on his face, his body wiggling in uncontrollable spasms.

"Excellent shot," Jack said giving Nora a low-five.

"Thank you, coach!" Nora chuckled as The Force returned to her. Kicking it up, she had a manic grin on her face that would've had serial killer running for the hills as she drew her arms back.

"Alright then, Jaune. LET'S PLAY SOME _dodge ball_!" Jack roared, Nora cackling madly as she chucked the electrified sphere of bulletproof red rubber at the blond, who ran like his life depended on it. Which it kinda did. "Today's session will be straight-Bangkok winter-rules…" he began to explain, though Jaune mainly focused on not getting killed by his own excitable teammate as she chucked spheres of electrified red rubber at him.

"So… Anyone wanna talk about what we saw earlier?" Ruby asked nervously while Jaune ran for his life.

"As long as we don't hit Jack's rage-button with a semi-truck trailer, I don't think we'll have to," Blake shuddered.

"Agreed," Weiss said, shivering as her mind harkened back to the primal terror she felt when _she _went head-to-head with her male teammate.

"Don't you think we should be stopping this?" Pyrrha asked nervously.

"If _you _want to get in the middle of that… be my guest," Ren supplied as he gestured to the trio standing near the wall, Jack and Nora cackling like crazed supervillains while Jaune dodged, ducked, dipped, dove, and _dodged _like his life depended on it.

Because it kind of did.

"I…" Pyrrha said weakly as she tried to find her words, only to find none. "I'll abstain," she eventually conceded when one of Nora's shots left a hemispherical impression. In solid concrete!

_***GIANT-SLAYER***_

**For those of you who've watched ****Avatar the Last Airbender** **and are familiar with some of the more-iconic episodes, it should be easy for you to recognize that the chapter ITSELF is referential to Avatar; or at least the name (Bitter World) and the SEGMENT about how multi-culturalism brings out the most from a person. That and the "work" part of it, as well as the emotional turmoil of the story's titular character.  
**

**I also think this is a good time to at least **_**somewhat **_**justify Jack's level of power compared to his peers. Like Iroh said- "It is the combination of these traits that makes the Avatar so powerful." Jack's childhood from 1-9 contained minimal LIVE combat training, mostly foraging for food and learning how to raise a family, but he did learn the BASICS of fighting from various sources. Years 9-13 consisted of his time in the Killing Bites, and was where his EARLY combat training was "refined" into a "do or die" fighting style; where he honed his killing instincts to a knife's edge because if he **_**didn't**_**, he was **_**literally **_**as good as dead. Years 13-14 were spent in Skyrim and I've left hints about WHO his Teacher at the time was, while years 14-19 has been hinted that he's been a Bounty Hunter, Sweeper, Bishoku-ya, and of course, White Fang. Jack never had a FORMAL education, similar to Son Goku (****Dragonball****, ****Dragonball Z****, ****Dragonball Super**** (GT never officially happened)), and Jack won't be getting one NOW (outside of what's mandatory for Beacon) because it'd be a waste of time for someone like him. He's good at fighting, and there will ALWAYS be a market for his talents in the world of Remnant.**

**That being said, people are still going to complain about Jack being OP, and that's fine. They may or may not be right about that, but I'm sticking with Jack as he is. At the very least I didn't make another **_**Naruto**_** crossover to add to the site, there are probably MILLIONS on here; and half the time they're only Naruto in name while having backstories and personalities of completely unrelated characters. Basically, a re-skin of an OC with Naruto's name and face slapped on for the purpose of exposure to a wider reading audience.**

**Anyhow, with all that been said, coming up soon is the Sports Day, and then some REALLY interesting stuff before the new batch of teachers roll in. Hope you'll leave plenty of Reviews with Questions, Comments, **_**and **_**Concerns. Remember, your words could very well shape the narrative, but only if there's basis to do so.**

**CREDIT TIME:  
Jaune avoiding tennis balls of doom, dodging wrenches, and then dodging dodge balls SOMEHOW charged with Nora's electricity, all come courtesy of collaboration between myself and ****Linkonpark100**** who made the suggestions. So yes, Reviewers CAN contribute to the narrative.**


End file.
